Abergavenny seen from The Blorenge

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The Blorenge is a summit at the south-eastern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park. It is one of the most accessible peaks in the Park, with a minor road zig-zagging past the high-points. The area around the top gives fine views of the town of Abergavenny, the summit called The Skirrid and the distant Severn estuary. There is something satisfying about looking down on a town from above, trying to correlate what you know from ground-level with the very different experience of seeing it from on high.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

View from Raglan Castle

After a walk around Abergavenny we stopped off at Raglan Castle on our drive home. The afternoon was one of blue skies, fast moving white clouds, and a temperature somewhat lower than recently. The remains of the castle are quite substantial (see photographs below and here) and include a spiral staircase up to what must have been something approximating the highest point of the building As we stood looking north-west at the summits of The Blorenge, Sugar Loaf and The Skirrid we could see the patches of light and the clouds' shadows moving across the fields. I took my photograph more in hope than expectation of capturing this effect and I'm quite pleased with the result.

 photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

View from Garway Hill

Our second visit to Garway Hill coincided with blue sky and moderate winds on an October morning. The views as we walked through the bracken and sheep-cropped turf were great and only slightly subdued by the fast disappearing morning mist. Sugar Loaf and The Skirrid were in view for a while and I photographed the latter as we climbed towards the summit. Our upward trajectory was slowed as we repeatedly paused to watch about twenty ravens, above the top of the hill, rolling, tumbling, even flying briefly upside down, for all the world looking like they were simply enjoying the October morning just like ourselves.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

View of Sugar Loaf

Quite a few peaks across the world attract the name "Sugar Loaf". The best known is perhaps the one in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its shape is a quite good approximation of the shape of an old loaf of sugar i.e. rather like an artillery shell. The Sugar Loaf on the edge of the Brecon Beacons above Abergavenny, Wales, is a less spectacular example and one that doesn't accord too well with the sugar loaf's shape, resembling (from some angles) the flattened cone of a volcano. In fact it is not made of igneous rock but is a ridge of sedimentary Old Red Sandstone. My view is taken from an adjacent, slightly lower peak, The Skirrid, made of the same rock.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100