Ysgyryd Fach is a hill one mile east of

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

in the county of

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

, south

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

. It is often referred to in English as 'Little Skirrid' or sometimes as 'Skirrid Fach'. Its summit height is just over 270m. A conifer plantation extends over much of the hill including its summit; prior to felling of trees on the upper slopes in 2012 outward views were therefore restricted. The hill is considered to be one of the 'seven hills of Abergavenny'.

Geology

The hill is formed from mudstones of the St Maughans Formation of the

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone 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 northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

laid down in the

Devonian period The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, wh ...

. Thin beds of

calcrete Caliche () is a sedimentary rock, a hardened natural cement of calcium carbonate that binds other materials—such as gravel, sand, clay, and silt. It occurs worldwide, in aridisol and mollisol soil orders—generally in arid or semiarid regions, ...

, a thin

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

of terrestrial origin, occur on the hill; its very summit consists of sandstone from the Senni Formation (formerly referred to as the 'Senni Beds'). There are few rock exposures and the lower slopes are mantled by

glacial till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

.British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map sheet 232 'Abergavenny' & accompanying memoir

Access

A public footpath runs east–west over the summit of the hill between the minor road to its east and Abergavenny Railway Station. A further path skirts the southern edge of the hill.

References

External links

images of Ysgyryd Fach and area from Geograph website
Mountains and hills of Monmouthshire {{Monmouthshire-geo-stub