Scenic Point in Monmouthshire

Abergavenny is the principal market town at the southern gateway to the Brecon Beacons National Park, a handsome town in the Usk Valley whose combination of the medieval castle, the excellent food market, the surrounding mountain landscape and the walking available on the hills above the town has made it the most rewarding base for exploring both the Beacons and the Black Mountains. The town's reputation as the food capital of Wales has developed since the 1980s and the annual Abergavenny Food Festival, held each September, is one of the most celebrated food events in Britain. The castle at Abergavenny, though largely ruined, has one of the most dramatic histories of any Norman castle in Wales. It was here in 1175 that Sychtyd ap Iorwerth and several other Welsh chieftains were invited to a feast by the Norman lord Ranulf de Breos and then massacred in one of the most notorious acts of treachery in the violent history of the Norman-Welsh frontier. The castle museum within the restored tithe barn provides excellent local history. The three mountains immediately above the town — the Sugar Loaf, Blorenge and Skirrid Fawr — are all accessible on foot from the town centre and provide summit walks with exceptional views that can be combined in a single day by energetic walkers. The Skirrid Fawr is perhaps the most atmospheric, its distinctive summit profile attributed in legend to the earthquake at the moment of the Crucifixion splitting the hilltop.

The Sugar Loaf mountain above Abergavenny in the Brecon Beacons National Park is one of the most distinctive and most accessible of the Black Mountains summits, a characteristic conical hill of 596 metres whose profile is recognisable from a wide area of the Gwent and Brecon valleys. The combination of the characteristic shape, the relatively easy ascent and the panoramic summit views have made it one of the most popular hill walks in south Wales. The summit provides views in all directions across the Vale of Abergavenny to the south, the Black Mountains to the north and the Usk Valley extending west toward the Brecon Beacons. The summit plateau is managed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its dry heathland habitat, supporting upland birds including red grouse, wheatear and stonechat characteristic of the Black Mountains. The town of Abergavenny below provides excellent visitor facilities and is the principal gateway town for both the Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons National Park. The combination of the accessible summit walking, the views and the historic market town at the foot of the hill makes the Sugar Loaf an excellent starting point for exploring this section of the national park.