Climbing Sugar Loaf mountain in Wales
On Saturday I climbed Sugar Loaf mountain. Now I’d love to say it was a beautiful warm day and I was overlooking the amazing city of Rio, but unfortunately the reality was this:
Looking a little wind-swept…
The Sugar Loaf mountain I climbed was in Wales.
We went away for the weekend with Mr A’s family and a group of us decided we’d climb the 596m mountain, which is near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire.
Heading in the right direction…
We organised our own route from the house we were staying in near Llangenny, although the National Trust has also marked a route from its carpark. It was a relatively easy climb, mostly through fields. The weather was unseasonably warm for October and the worst thing we had to battle against was the wind.
Trying not to lose the map!
No matter how much I travel, the scenery in the UK never fails to amaze me and I absolutely loved the patchwork of fields which stretched as far as the eye could see.
We were alone for the majority of our walk but as we reached the summit of Sugar Loaf we spotted lots of other walkers making their way to the same point from other directions.
We made it!
Despite the wind, we had gorgeous views of the surrounding Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons.
We decided to walk a different route back to allow us to pop into a couple of local pubs on the way home. We had a lovely walk through a couple of villages, where I fell in love with the tiny Post Office which was attached to someone’s house:
Unfortunately our first experience at the Red Lion in Llanbedr was not good – in fact I think the lady behind the bar would have been happy to never have to serve another tourist in her life. Luckily our disappointment after the first pub was forgotten at the Dragon Head in Llangenny, where the staff were absolutely lovely. Sitting in the cosy sofas, resting our weary feet, it was difficult to force ourselves to make the final five minute walk home!
Info: The route we planned was 10 miles, but you can get up and down Sugar Loaf mountain in four miles from the National Trust carpark.
wow, I actually did not know this was an actual mountain! I was a big fan of the Welsh band Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and they have a track called Billy and the Sugarloaf Mountain. This must be the very same mountain!
Looks like a great walk!
Ah, I never heard of that, will have to check it out! I also discovered on my weekend that a sugarloaf was the name of the cone shape sugar was sold in, before it started to be put into bags.
I didn’t know that fact! Well, you learn something new every day!
Great blogging! I especially like the sheepdog on the quad and the pretending to map read and pointing. See you soon!!! Send some dates!
Pretending to map read? Weren’t we genuinely map reading there? 😉 Yes, looking forward to a catch up soon.
I love trekking in Wales, and this summer I was so lucky to have the sun out and shining all bright and warm the day I climbed Snowdon. It was so funny to see the pubs along the way that always had signs welcoming muddy boots and wet umbrellas.