Sugar Loaf trail head by Mynydd Llanwenarth.
Upper part of route to Sugar Loaf.
| Sugar Loaf from Mynydd
Llanwenarth Sugar Loaf |
| Estimated net time | 1½-2 hours. | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | Potentially OK to drink the water at the bottom of the gully Cwm Trosnant. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route, except in the gully Cwm Trosnant (April 2013). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at trail head car park. | ||
| Start height | 316 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 460 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 5.2 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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Assume your starting point is the intersection of roads A465 and A40, south of the town Abergavenny, in southern Wales. Drive A40 3.9 km (2.4 mi) north-west, in the direction of Brecon, and turn right where signed for "Sugar Loaf". This is the last road turning right before you get out into the country side. Drive 180 metres and turn left, and drive 400 metres to a T-junction. Turn left and drive another 1.9 km (1.2 mi), and park on the car park on the right hand side of the road.
Start your hike by heading 300 metres uphill from the car park, and turn left when you hit the wide path running along the ridge. Follow this path 650 metres and turn right onto a more narrow path heading down to the valley. From the bottom of the valley follow the path that runs straight up towards the summit. The path zigzags a little just below the summit plateau, and then takes you to the summit cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
I had clear limitations time-wise this Sunday, both in terms of check-out time from my Castle Hotel in Brecon, and also my flight back home from Heathrow in the afternoon. Since the weather was fairly miserable I decided to have breakfast before I set off for my hike, hoping that the weather would improve, but also knowing that this would mean I would have to rush if I was to be back at the hotel and get ready before I had to check out.
After having located trail head, thanks to a helpful lady out running, I decided to push it a little in order to be on the safe side time-wise, and this definitely generated plenty of lactic acid in my already slightly exhausted thighs. But it also meant I was able to complete my ascent before the rain started.
This was the fifth hike this week-end, all completed in windy and more or less wet conditions, but I had achieved most of what my ambitions had been for the week-end, and was definitely happy.