[6] According to Irish academic Paul Tempan, the term "sugarloaf" is widely applied in Britain and Ireland to hills of conical form, in much the same way that the name pain de sucre is used in France.

The traditional method for making a sugarloaf was complex, involving repeated purifications, moulding and a leaching process gradually to refine the mass of sugar, by ridding it of its associated molasses and eventually all trace of colour, leaving it a glistening white.

[2] Tempan notes that a 1935 article by Eoin MacNeill in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (JRSAI), on placenames mentioned in the Togail Bruidne Dá Derga, suggested that Irish: Ó Cualann could refer to "sheep of Cualu", but considered it unlikely.

[6] The Kilmacanogue valley, which the Great Sugar Loaf overlooks, was part of a regional north-south subglacial meltwater drainage route that included the Scalp (to the north) and the Glen of the Downs (to the southeast).

[6] The Great Sugar Loaf is popular with hill walkers given its proximity to Dublin, access from the N11 motorway, and relatively worn pathways that do not require full hiking boots or extensive navigation skills.