After a day walking in the Brecon Beacons and great dining in Monmouth we had a further day to enjoy in South Wales. We went to church on the Sunday morning and decided to return to Abergaveny to walk up Sugar Loaf. It would be a good day to warm down before returning to work.
Sugar Loaf is an outlier in the Black Mountains. It is not that high - 596 metres - compared with the highest point in the Black Mountains (Waun Fach at 811 m). Nevertheless what it lacks in height it has in distinctiveness. It is visible from many places such as the A40 between Raglan and Abergaveny above. Its topographic prominence (413 metres) or the drop between the Sugar Loaf summit and higher peaks is high.
We took the tiny single track road up to the National Trust car park at Grid Reference SO 268 166. We passed several cars but the lack of passing places made this difficult. One driver seemed to find this very difficult as he could not reverse straight!
The path from the car park goes up through bracken covered heath rising gently up to the Mynydd Lllanwenarth ridge from which you can see the summit. You can then take one of the paths heading first NNW then NE to the Sugar Loaf summit. Alternatively you can take a more direct line going into the Den Fach valley and up the other side.
We had a great view North and West over the Black Mountains. The cloudbase was down to at most 700 metres so the summits of the Brecon Beacons were not visible.
We took a different way down to the car park. It was a leisurely two hour walk and sadly after that we had to head off home.
Sugar Loaf is a P200 Prominent Peak.
thehomelyyear
Pro 
The scenery is wonderful...I really like the sun and shadow on the patchwork of fields in the valley.
Margaret and Noreen