Ysgyryd Fawr

About Ysgyryd Fawr

Rising abruptly from the Monmouthshire levels, this distinctive isolated peak marks the easternmost edge of the Black Mountains. Characterised by its dramatic western landslide, the steep climb through woodland leads to a narrow summit ridge where the ruins of St Michael’s Chapel offer a sense of ancient history amidst expansive border views.

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Did You Know?

• •The name is derived from the Welsh 'Ysgyryd', meaning split or shattered, a direct reference to the massive prehistoric landslide that has torn a great notch into the hill's western flank.
• •Commonly known as the 'Holy Mountain', local tradition once claimed the landslip occurred at the moment of the Crucifixion; this led to the summit becoming a site of pilgrimage, with soil from the hill even being scattered on coffins in local graveyards.
• •Stone foundations at the summit are all that remain of a 17th-century chapel dedicated to St Michael, which served as a secret place of worship for Roman Catholics during periods of religious persecution.
• •The summit trig point provides an exceptional vantage point for surveying the transition from the Welsh highlands to the English lowlands, looking directly across the valley to the cone of the Sugar Loaf and north to the long ridge of Hatterrall Hill.
• •Given its status as the 'Holy Mountain' and the presence of a ruined chapel, it is perhaps the only summit in the Black Mountains where it feels genuinely inappropriate to complain out loud about the steepness of the pitched stone path.