Here is a panorama, part of the Panoramic Ireland series here at panoramicireland.com, taken in autumn on a fine sunny day in this often overlooked part of Ireland now part of a UNESCO Geopark.

Slieve Gullion, Sliabh gCuillinn in Irish, means Mountain of the Steep Slopes. It is also said that it derives its name from Culann, a figure in Irish mythology of whom Setanta became Cuchulainn.

It is the remains of an extinct volcano and reaches 573m above sea level. Slieve Gullion sits in the centre of the Ring of Gullion, a ring-dyke complex, part of which can be seen in the smaller hills on the left of this image. Little is left of the volcano formed over 65 million years ago, with many geological theories propounded on the origins of the rocks and landscapes in the area, but it is widely acknowledged to be the best example of a tertiary ring-dyke complex in Ireland or Britain. Slieve Gullion itself is younger than the surrounding hills forming the ring-dyke.

Much of the area was impacted by glaciation during the last ice age with the county of Armagh situated in Europe's largest drumlin belt. Drumlins are hills created by the movement of ice over the landscape, as glaciers advance the ice carries soil and material which is then deposited and sculpted into drumlins, a word with Irish orgins that means a small ridge, being formed from the Irish word druim or drum meaning ridge and the English diminutive form lin.

Because it lies quite far inland, most of Ireland's mountains are on the coastal fringe, Slieve Gullion can be seen from Wicklow, Antrim and beyond and likewise these places can be seen from Slieve Gullion.

My first book Portrait of Armagh covers the Orchard County with images and text of some of my favourite parts of the Northern Irish county.