Sugar Loaf, Monmouthshire Sugar Loaf, Monmouthshire Sugar Loaf, sometimes called The Sugar Loaf ( or ), is a mountain situated north-west of Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is the southernmost of the summit peaks of the Black Mountains, with a height of 1,955 feet (596 metres). The original Welsh name of the hill appears to have been Mynydd Pen-y-fâl. Translated into English, this name means 'mountain of the head/top of the peak/summit' from "mynydd", "pen" and "bâl". The name Sugar Loaf has been popularly applied to numerous hills which have a perceived resemblance to a sugarloaf; the nearest other such hill is the
Sugarloaf Mountain (Cleburne County, Arkansas) from the surrounding hills. Why the sandstone formation has held firm on top of the long familiar landmark is a question that geologists can explain. Because the huge rocks at the top of the formation lie in flat layers and were not folded by continental drift, they cap the mountain on which they lie. Through the centuries, less resistant units of sandstone, silt stone and shale eroded away, leaving the atoka formation which the white man called Sugar Loaf. Exactly where the mountain first got its name is a question nobody can answer today. The Indians called it Tonawanda or