Kleiner Zschirnstein is a charming sandstone mesa rising to 473 m a.s.l. above the quiet village of Kleingießhübel in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. It may not be the tallest peak around, but it packs in everything that makes Saxon Switzerland special — dramatic rock faces, peaceful forest, and sweeping views across the Czech-Saxon borderlands.

The summit plateau is cloaked in coniferous forest and rises gently from east to west. The southern flank tapers off gradually, while the northern side drops away in steep sandstone walls with a handful of freestanding rock pillars — a magnet for climbers. From the top, you are rewarded with a wide panorama over Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland. Spring brings dappled light through the pines, summer offers cool shade on the plateau, and autumn turns the surrounding hillsides into a patchwork of colour.

• Kleingießhübel — start from the village and approach via the southern slope; easy to moderate difficulty

• Look out for the curious bowl-shaped hollows on the plateau — natural weathering features of the sandstone.
• The peak lies within the municipality of Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna, Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district.

Those hollows on the plateau caused quite a stir around 1870, when one of them was mistakenly identified as the site of a pagan cult — a romantic misreading that fired the imagination of local historians for decades.