Travel: Nottingham

"This film is very real," insists set designer Sonja Klaus, as she adjusts a quiver strapped to a mannequin dressed in Crowe's tunic, leather trousers and shadowy hood. "We have no men in tights – and no peaked hats either," she laughs. "It's about what it was like living then and being there."

"Then", in this incarnation, is the 13th century, and our hero is an erstwhile army archer. In actuality, who Robin Hood was and where he came from – or if he existed at all – depends on who you ask. The world's best-loved brigand has morphed from a simple yeoman in 15th century ballads to an outer-space desperado in a 1960s cartoon series. In more down-to-earth portrayals, he has often been a former soldier in the Crusades, sickened by the horrors of war.

"Every age interprets its folklore to express its preoccupations," says Ade Andrews, a Sherwood Forest ranger and actor who offers a brooding take on the bandit as he leads a tour through the city – which, he says, derives its name from King Snot of Denmark, who settled here after the sixth century. Nottingham dropped the "S," because later invaders couldn't – or, I suspect, wouldn't – pronounce it, no doubt to the relief of residents.

Although various outlaws named "Robinhood" or "Robehood" appear in English records more than half a dozen times throughout the 13th century in reference to crimes committed from Berkshire in the south to Yorkshire in the north, Andrews believes the world's best-loved bandit is an idealised archetype – "a symbol of truth, justice and freedom".

Decked out in leather trousers, fringed vest, and a tattered shirt that reveals a distracting amount of chest hair, he points out what is perhaps the only shopping mall on earth with an entrance to a maze of caves, where Robin Hood reputedly used to hide. He also pauses in front of St Mary's Church, where one tale says the outlaw was captured after a fight. He would likely have been imprisoned across the road in a dungeon beneath the stone-columned jail, where condemned felons were hung on the steps until 1864.

Today, the jail functions as the Galleries of Justice Museum and houses the largest collection of prison artefacts in the UK. More to the point for Robin Hood fans, it was here, in a recently discovered wine-bottle-shaped dungeon, where the outlaw would likely have been imprisoned after his misadventure in St Mary's. "There was no way to escape, because the walls were sandstone and would rip at your fingers," guide Helen Shepherd explains.

Beyond the city, pilgrims anxious to follow in the footsteps of Robin Hood can pursue an audio trail that leads to key sites, including the church where Robin and Marian married; Creswell Crags caves, where the outlaw was said to have cooled his heels (when he wasn't camped out beneath the mall); and Sherwood Forest Country Park, home of the Major Oak where Robin gathered with his men. With its tentacle-like branches, the mighty Major is an estimated 800 to 1200 years old.

To really get inside Robin Hood's head, though, I need to be able to shoot a bow and arrow. So I go to the Adrenalin Jungle Activity Centre, where my instructor Dave Gallop leads me and my merry men towards a bulls-eye target in a field. Picking up a fibreglass bow, he instructs us to draw the string back with the left arm almost horizontal, and release our arrows, offering a cheeky warning to the ladies. "You have two obstacles, which come as a pair," Gallop grins. "And if you let the string go too close to your chest, it's going to hurt," he winces.

Fortunately for me, these obstacles are mere molehills, and when I let my arrows fly, they actually hit the target more often than not. Never mind that, in terms of 21st-century usefulness, this skill ranks below knitting and only slightly above yodelling. When Ridley Scott casts a Robin Hood sequel, I'll be ready for his call.

The Facts

Lace Market Hotel, Nottingham (0115 852 3232, www.lacemarkethotel.co.uk). Doubles from 89. Nottingham Castle Museum (0115 915 3700, www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk). Costumes exhibited until October.

Galleries of Justice Museum (0115 952 0555, www.galleriesofjustice.org.uk). Sherwood Forest Nature Reserve, Edwinstowe (0844 980 8080, www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/countryparks). Adrenalin Jungle Activity Centre, Bilsthorpe (01623 883980, www.adrenalinjungle. com); www.visitbritain. com/ movies and www.robinhoodbreaks; visitnottingham.com Robin Hood opens on Friday.

For more UK holidays visit www.holidays.scotsman.com

This article was first published in the Scotsman, May 8, 2010