Sugar Loaf | |
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The Sugar Loaf from the north-west, with the village of Llanbedr in the valley below
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Highest point | |
Elevation | 596 m (1,955 ft) |
Prominence | 411 m (1,348 ft) |
Parent peak | Waun Fach |
Listing | Marilyn |
Geography | |
Location | Monmouthshire, United Kingdom |
Parent range | Black Mountains |
OS grid | SO272187 |
Topo map | OS Landranger 161 |
Sugar Loaf, sometimes called The Sugar Loaf (Welsh: Mynydd Pen-y-fâl or Y Fâl), is a mountain situated 2 miles (3.2 km) north-west of Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is the southernmost of the summit peaks of the Black Mountains, with a height of 1,955 feet (596 metres).
The original Welsh name of the hill appears to have been Mynydd Pen-y-fâl. Translated into English, this name means 'mountain of the head/top of the peak/summit' from mynydd, pen and bâl. The name Sugar Loaf has been popularly applied to numerous hills which have a perceived resemblance to a sugarloaf; the nearest other such hill is the Sugar Loaf in Carmarthenshire.
The view from the summit covers the Black Mountains to the north, the Cotswolds to the east, as far as the Brecon Beacons including Pen y Fan and Corn Du to the west and the Bristol Channel to the south. The Skirrid is easily visible to the immediate east, including its spectacular landslip at its northern end. On a clear day it is possible to see hills as far north as Shropshire and as far south as Somerset.
A southern foothill of Sugar Loaf, Y Graig, was discovered in the 1990s to be the site of prehistoric flint tools dating from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Ages.