The final hill in Monmouthshire for me, Hatterrall Hill is a 531m hill that sits on the far bottom right of the Black Mountains range. This means the Offa’s Dyke and Beacons Way footpath passes closely by it and you have (pretty much) views of Wales on one side and England the other.
This is a good circular route, mixing some muddy lanes, country roads, wide grassy paths and some steep and muddy sections of descent. Wear good boots and take care on some of the downhill sections on the way back.
Parking is in a little car park near the Queen’s Head and is £2 which you need to pay at the pub – there is a little mailbox inside the porch which is accessible even if the pub is shut.
There are numerous footpaths to chose so you can take different routes in the beginning, but you head to the Offa’s Dyke and Beacons Way footpath which is well marked and easy to follow.
You come first to a trig point after a good section of ascent, before a longish walk to the summit which is marked by a small cairn.
Views are good from early on in the ascent, taking in Edmund’s Tump, The Skirrid, the Sugar Loaf, Bryn Arw and the Black Mountains.
The summit is fairly flat and covered in heather, with a small path to the cairn that offers a couple of routes down.
The footpath down is easy to follow, although a little overgrown in places with heather. It leads down to a strange lump that sits on the end of the hill, with enough prominence to be a hill in its own right, albeit a very small one in diameter.
I walked to the top of this, following a little path that winds up and around it. Views from the top are very good as it falls away sharply in every direction.
I dropped down from here into the valley and followed a mixture of country lane and footpaths through fields back to the car. The valley was classic Welsh countryside and still offered great views of the Skirrid.
This was a decent hill and a good way to complete Monmouthshire, which has some of the best known hills in Wales, but also plenty of quiet ones like this.