Seen from the Hereford road, the Skirrid looks as if something has taken a bite out of it. The landslip on its western face, probably the result of the end of the last Ice Age, left a jumble of boulders and a cleft that local people have explained in more than one way for a very long time.
The oldest and most solemn explanation is that the mountain split at the moment of the Crucifixion, when the Gospels say the earth shook and the rocks were rent. That made the Skirrid a holy place, and a chapel dedicated to St Michael was built on the summit. Pilgrims climbed to it, particularly on Michaelmas Eve, and Wikipedia records that in 1676 Pope Clement X granted a plenary indulgence to those who made the ascent at Michaelmas. During the years when Catholic worship was outlawed the ruined chapel was used for secret Masses, and two stone uprights of the doorway still stand.
Because the ground was holy, its soil was thought to carry a blessing. Marie Trevelyan, writing in 1909, lists earth from the fissure of the Skyrrid among the sacred soils of Wales, and later writers describe it being taken away to be scattered on farmland, sprinkled on coffins and laid in the foundations of new churches. A stone in the slip area is called the Devil's Table.
There is a less pious version too. In the Jack o' Kent stories of the Monmouthshire and Herefordshire border, Jack is said to have leapt from the Sugar Loaf to the Skirrid and landed so hard that his heel gouged the mountain. The same cycle of stories has him hurling the Trellech stones from the Skirrid's summit. The mountain carries both traditions quite happily: a hill made sacred by the Passion, and a hill scarred by a local wizard showing off.
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