Scottish Deer Centre

The red deer has long been part of the country’s popular imagery – thanks in no small part to Sir Edwin Landseer’s masterly 1851 painting The Monarch of the Glen, which now hangs in Edinburgh’s Scottish National Gallery – but there was a time when the Scottish countryside was roamed by all manner of sharp-clawed beasts, from wolves and lynx to elk and brown bears. Fife’s 55-acre Scottish Deer Centre showcases these once-native animals – as well as housing no less than 12 species of deer, which can be fed by hand. So while Fife might be some distance from the rutting grounds of the Highlands, it still has something of a wild side.