Skirrid Fawr ( , ), often referred to as just the Skirrid, is a traditional

Christian pilgrimage Christianity has a strong tradition of pilgrimages, both to sites relevant to the New Testament narrative (especially in the Holy Land) and to sites associated with later saints or miracles. History Christian pilgrimages were first made to sit ...

site and an easterly outlier of the Black Mountains in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It forms the easternmost part of the

Brecon Beacons National Park Brecon Beacons National Park, officially named Bannau Brycheiniog National Park (), is a National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Wales. It is named after the Brecon Beacons (), the mountain range at its centre. The national park ...

. The smaller hill of

Ysgyryd Fach Ysgyryd Fach is a hill one mile east of Abergavenny in the county of Monmouthshire, south Wales. It is often referred to in English as 'Little Skirrid' or sometimes as 'Skirrid Fach'. Its summit height is just over . A conifer plantation extends o ...

or "Little Skirrid" () lies about south. It is high and lies just to the north-east of

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; , , archaically , ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a "Gateway to Wales"; it is approximately from the England–Wales border, border with England and is loca ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

, about from the English border. The

Beacons Way The Beacons Way (Welsh: Ffordd y Bannau) is a waymarked long distance footpath in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales. It is a linear route which runs for east to west through the National Park, and passes many of the most important landmar ...

passes along the ridge.

Geology

The distinctive shape of this

Old Red Sandstone Old Red Sandstone, abbreviated ORS, is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the eastern seaboard of North America. It ...

hill comprises a long ridge oriented nearly north–south, with a jagged western side resulting from

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

landslip Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslide ...

s . The upper slopes of the hill are composed of

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

age

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

s assigned to the Senni Formation (formerly known as the "Senni Beds"). These overlie weaker

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

s of the St Maughans Formation - a situation which has contributed to the instability of the hill's steep flanks, resulting in extensive

s, notably affecting the northwestern flanks of the hill. There are numerous other landslips of a similar nature on the nearby hills, although that on the Skirrid is perhaps the most well known owing to its visibility from several directions. Some of the landslide areas contain numerous jumbled blocks of sandstone, one of which is known as the "Devil's Table". The ridge is very similar in its rocky edge to that found on the Black Hill to the north in

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

Cultural associations

The Welsh name ''Ysgyryd'' meaning 'split' or 'shattered' and ''Fawr'' meaning 'great' describes the hill's shape. There is a rich

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

attached to the hill, including a distinctive stone known as the Devil's Table. According to legend, part of the hill is said to have been broken off at the moment of the

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

. There was a local tradition that earth from the Skirrid was holy and especially fertile, and it was taken away to be scattered on fields elsewhere, on coffins, and in the foundations of churches.

s were traditionally made, especially on

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in many Western Christian liturgical calendars on 29 Se ...

Eve, to the summit.

History

In older literature the spelling ''Skyrrid'' is sometimes encountered and the hill is also referred to locally as the ''Holy Mountain'' or ''Sacred Hill''. The ruins of an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

and a mediæval

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

, dedicated to St. Michael, lie at the summit. During the

religious persecution Religious persecution is the systematic oppression of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within socie ...

of the Catholic Church in Wales, which began under

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

and ended only with Catholic Emancipation in 1829, the mountain remained a regular site of

. Furthermore, the illegal and underground

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

mission based at Cwm and led by future Catholic martyr St. David Lewis, regularly visited the ruined chapel atop Ysgyryd Fawr, which was the site of a Mass rock. In 1676, Pope Clement X promised a

plenary indulgence In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for (forgiven) sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission bef ...

to those who went up the mountain upon

. In 1678, local magistrate and

priest hunter A priest hunter was a person who, acting on behalf of the English and later British government, spied on or captured Catholic priests during Penal Times. Priest hunters were effectively bounty hunters. Some were volunteers, experienced soldiers ...

John Arnold alleged in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

that, "he hath seen a hundred

Papist The words Popery (adjective Popish) and Papism (adjective Papist, also used to refer to an individual) are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox ...

s meet at the top of Skyrrid for

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

Rudolf Hess Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician, Nuremberg trials, convicted war criminal and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer ( ...

used to walk here when he was held prisoner at nearby Maindiff Court during the early 1940s. North of the hill at Llanvihangel Crucorney, The Skirrid Inn claims to be one of the oldest pubs in Wales.

Ownership and access

Ysgyryd Fawr has belonged to the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

since 1939. The summit offers views of the Sugar Loaf to the west, and

Blorenge Blorenge, also called The Blorenge (; ), is a prominent hill overlooking the valley of the River Usk near Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, southeast Wales. It is situated in the southeastern corner of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The summit plat ...

to the south, and the ridge is easily accessed on foot from a car park beside the B4521 Ross Road. The ascent is steep initially through woods, but gradual thereafter as open ground is reached. The main path follows the crest of the mountain north to the trig point and chapel remains which mark the summit. A rough path follows the perimeter of the hill at a much lower level.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Skirrid
images of Ysgyryd Fawr and surrounding area on Geograph website

The Skirrid, on the National Trust website
Catholic Church in Wales Catholic pilgrimage sites Celtic Christianity Marilyns of Wales Black Mountains, Wales Mass rocks Mountains and hills of Monmouthshire Scheduled monuments in Monmouthshire Abergavenny National Trust properties in Wales Roman Catholic shrines in the United Kingdom