Peace comes in many forms. The wilderness variety has no sign of man, but the Dublin Mountains sort is altogether more human.

Here, in the folds of the foothills, are places of cosy solitude within shouting distance of the city's southern fringes.

Take Carrickgollogan, or Katty Gollagher, as it was called in Victorian picnicking times.

A low hill worn to a nub by retreating ice, no doubt, it stands between the main Dublin-Bray road and the Dublin-Enniskerry road.

The roads are linked by the charming Ballycorus road, which winds from the Silver Tassie under the old Harcourt Street railway viaduct to Kilternan.

Halfway along it, you will see to the south a great granite chimney high on a headland, the relic of an extraordinary 19th-century industrial venture.

The Ballycorus Lead Works established itself here in the 1820s, extracting lead and silver from local ore and from ore transported from the Luganure mine at the western end of Glendalough.

To dispose of "noxious vapours", a massive mile-long stone flue was built up to the 80-foot chimney.

It has since caved in here and there, but you can follow it for much of the climb.

You can even get inside it and walk upright in parts, but this may be dangerous, given its fragile condition.

Carrickgollogan novices are best advised to make directly for the chimney: just walk up the short cul-de-sac and move up through the gorse and pines. Keep the flue for another day.

The chimney, which is now about 50 feet tall, having lost a third of its height, looks north and east across the sweep of south Dublin and D·n Laoghaire.

It's best enjoyed when a decent hat-holding gale is slamming into the opening and up its length.

An exquisite staircase spirals around the outer wall; it now lacks some of its steps, so dangerous temptations do not arise.

To the south the land is easy. Ten or 15 minutes along the track will find you at the base of Carrickgollogan itself, which is a neat, small and undemanding mound.

A zigzag track goes to the top and its 360-degree panorama. You can see Howth over to the north-east, Bray over to the south-east and, over to the west across Barnaslingan hill, the top of the Scalp, where the Dublin Mountains become the Wicklow Mountains.

The whole expedition should take no longer than two hours.