Aside from the mythical name, Slieve Gallion (in Irish, Sliabh Callann, meaning "mountain of the heights") in County Derry is unremarkable in mountaineering terms. It's a mere pimple at 527 metres, and only the 397th highest peak in Ireland. By road, it is 6km from Moneymore and 13km equally from the larger towns of Magherafelt and Cookstown. There are twists and turns in the roads as you approach the eastern limit of the Sperrin mountain range, but you can almost drive to the summit, and easily walk the last few steps from the car park.

There's a cairn on the basalt mountain top - the burial place of King Colla Uaís, according to local myths - and an absolutely magnificent view of fields neatly parcelled by high hedgerows and dry-stone walls. A nation of small-holdings and people still working the land, Slieve Gallion is remarkable for being an aberration of height in a flat land.

From here, you can see Lough Neagh in its entirety, the Belfast hills, the Glens of Antrim and the Mournes of County Down. In the distance stands Northern Ireland's mini Uluru, the remains of an extinct volcano with steep sides and a rounded flat top, rising incongruously out of the agricultural plateau. Slemish is where St Patrick was enslaved as a shepherd and swineherd for a chieftan called Miliucc in the 5th century. But that's another story ...

• OS map ref: H799 878