Boyabat sits inland from Sinop in the Gokirmak valley, a farm town watched over by a fortress on a sheer rock. It is not a polished tourist stop, but it has a strong sense of place: rice fields in the valley, brick and tile workshops, old houses below the castle, and market streets that still serve the villages around it.
The castle is the reason most travellers stop. Its walls follow the cliff above town, and tunnels and chambers under the rock hint at a much older defensive site. In town, the living cultural heritage museum gives the old houses some context.
Boyabat's appeal is compact and a little rough-edged. Add the Salar rock tomb west of town and a Monday market lunch of local kebab or rice dishes, and it becomes a worthwhile inland detour rather than just a road stop to the Black Sea.