Mogielica Peak

The Beskid Wyspowy - the Island Beskids - get their name from their shape: instead of continuous ridges the range is a set of separate rounded hills rising individually out of a lower plateau, so that from a distance or above morning valley fog they read as islands, which is the whole visual point of the range. Mogielica at 1,171 metres is the highest of them. The summit carries a steel lookout tower, put up in the 2000s, which is necessary because the top is forested and there is no view from the ground; from the platform the Tatras, the Gorce, the Pieniny and the Babia Gora massif are all visible on a clear day. The slopes hold hazel grouse and other forest birds and a protected area covers part of them. It is a quiet range - one of the least walked in southern Poland - and the villages around it, Jurkow and Chyszowki among them, are working rather than touristic.

What you actually see

• Islands, not ridges - separate rounded hills standing out of a lower plateau.
• A lookout tower - necessary because the forested summit has no view from the ground.
• Four ranges from the top - Tatras, Gorce, Pieniny and Babia Gora on a clear day.
• A quiet range - one of the least walked in the Polish south.

When to go

May to October; autumn mornings for fog in the valleys below. A day.

Honest expectations

Without the tower there is no view - the summit is wooded. Trails are marked but lightly used and can be overgrown. Public transport to the trailheads is sparse. The villages have few services.

Nearby

The Gorce are east; Limanowa and Mszana Dolna are the nearest towns.