Sugar Loaf Mountain Wales - Family Friendly Hikes

The Brecon Beacon National Park is well known as an adventure destination in the UK, with an array of hikes, waterfalls, rivers to canoe and mountain summits to tick off, you can easily see why. I feel incredibly grateful to live less than an hour away and it's a place we spend many weekends exploring.

As my kids start to get older we are embarking on slightly more demanding adventures and as always love to share and encourage others to get outdoors and embrace all that the UK has to offer.

If you're looking to take on a few mountains this year, with your kids in tow, The Sugar Loaf in Abergavenny is a great place to start. The Sugar Loaf is one of the highest peaks in the Black Mountains, standing at 596m (1955ft) but it's also very family-friendly and you often see very young children walking up with their parents.

My eldest who is 9 wanted to have a bit of one to one time with me so despite it being a pretty chilly day we headed to The Sugar Loaf as despite the drop in temperature it was clear skies which meant the views from the top wouldn't disappoint. As you approach the mountain you make you way up a narrow winding road which eventually leads to a free National Trust car park. There are a variety of ways you can reach the summit including a circular walk although as we had arrived after lunchtime and with the sun setting early in winter we decided to go on a more direct route.

I would like to make note that there are no toilets at the carpark so we usually make a pitstop at the large Waitrose around 10mins away and also you want to allocate around 2-3hrs to get to the top and back if your with children (I usually do this within 1 1/2 hours on my own).

Even though Sugar Loaf doesn't look too daunting you still need to take care as at the end of the day it's still a mountain and physical effort will need to be put in to reach the top and mountain rescue has been called out many times to those who come ill-prepared. You want to have decent walking boots and it will be colder and winder on top so extra layers is a must as well as a bottle of water.

We decided to go up one way and come down another with the added bonus of finding some Geocaches along the way. The initial walk to the base of incline can be a little boring for children so I always try and make it fun by trying to spot any wildlife, we saw some birds of prey during our walk.

Packing a few snacks is also always key especially when with kids, I've done The Sugar Loaf on my own and don't take breaks but kids will want to have a stop every now and then and there are plenty of big rocks to sit on along the way. What is lovely about this peak is that there is always a consistent flow of people going up so while it's not too busy in the off-peak months it's not lonely either.

The views from the top on a clear day are incredible taking in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales and West England plus and you can spot The Skirrd, a small mountain which is also great for hikes and in the distance Pen-Y-Fan the tallest mountain in South Wales. For those who bag trig points, there is a very nice trig on the summit which is also popular with people taking selfies.

If you're looking for a bit of a challenge and want to get outdoors and explore somewhere new then I highly recommend a hike up The Sugar Loaf in the Brecon Beacons National park.