It is 486 metres (1,594 feet) high and lies just to the north-east of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, about ten miles (16 kilometres) from the English border.

[2] The distinctive shape of this Old Red Sandstone hill comprises a long ridge oriented nearly north–south, with a jagged western side resulting from ice age landslips .

Furthermore, the illegal and underground Jesuit mission based at Cwm and led by future Catholic martyr St. David Lewis, regularly visited the ruined chapel atop Ysgyryd Fawr, which was the site of a Mass rock.

In 1678, local magistrate and priest hunter John Arnold alleged in the House of Commons that, "he hath seen a hundred Papists meet at the top of Skyrrid for Mass.

The summit offers views of the Sugar Loaf to the west, and Blorenge to the south, and the ridge is easily accessed on foot from a car park beside the B4521 Ross Road.