The History of Welsh Hill Lists

The History of Welsh Hill Lists – Part 13

The Early Years

1950-1962

1956 – Arthur St George Walsh

In 1956 a half page article, which was, in fact, a letter to the Editor of the Wayfarers’ Journal, appeared in that publication.  It was entitled ‘The 2000 Footers of England (and Wales)’.  The sender of the letter was Arthur St. George Walsh.

Arthur St George Walsh, photo dated 1980's (photo courtesy of King's School, Chester)

The intervening years between the publication of his 1950 article and this 1956 update had seen Walsh strike up a correspondence with Ted Moss and continue his investigative 50 foot re-ascent work on the ground.  This resulted in “A few corrections have been made, partly through the kindness of friends, notably Mr. E. Moss who has generously added private information to the basically important lists he published in Rucksack Club Journal.”

The revised totals for Wales now stood at 155 definites, an increase of one over his 1950 total.  The doubtfuls had increased from 59, in 1950, to 62, whilst the 92 definitely nots in 1950 had increased to 97.  The overall number of points investigated in Wales was now 314.  When combined with Dartmoor and his Lakes and Pennines areas the revised totals amounted to 373 definites, 139 doubtfuls and 366 definitely nots.  This meant a staggering 878 points had been investigated.

The 2000 footers of England and Wales.  Arthur's article in the 1956 Wayfarers' Journal

In his 1950 Wayfarers’ Journal article Walsh posed a number of questions, two of which were, “Finally, I shall be grateful to anyone who will send me the answers, or any help thereto, to these questions –”.

(1)   “Was Elmslie the first person to do the 2,000 footers of England, and if not, who?”

(2)  “Who was the first to do the 2,000 footers of England (and Wales)?”

At the end of Walsh’s 1956 update he states : “Since my appeal for information as to the first persons to complete these exercises remains unanswered, may I help future researchers by recording that the late W.T. Elmslie finished his (somewhat different) list of 348 for England on 25/11/44”.  Ever the one for detail, Walsh thankfully lets us know that W.T. Elmslie was the first person to complete a list of the English 2,000 footers.  Elmslie, who was a Methodist Minister and a good hill walking friend and colleague of Walsh’s was killed in his London Church by a V2 rocket during the Blitz.  The half page article ends with Walsh telling us about his own completion: “My 512 finished with Snaefell on 31/12/53”.

With this all too brief an update, Arthur St. George Walsh’s participation in published articles concerning his hill list is at an end.  He will be mentioned, along with his hill list, in detail, but this will have to wait another seventeen years.  He, along with Ted Moss, led the way for all Welsh 2,000 foot hill lists that followed.  What is so remarkable about Arthur St. George Walsh is that his meticulous hill list compilation efforts are almost unrecognized.  With his ascent of Snaefell he became only the third person to complete a list to the combined 2,000 foot mountains of England and Wales.  Even this is now under debate, as there is evidence to suggest that Walsh had, in fact, completed the English and Welsh part of his definites sometime in the 1930’s.  If this is true, it would place Arthur St. George Walsh at the head of the list for the first full completion of the combined English and Welsh 2,000 foot mountains, this being based on a methodical and carefully checked list of tops with 50 feet of re-ascent on all sides.

Walsh has been described as a “Kind and cultured gentleman with an extensive knowledge of the hills”. I also suspect he was rather humble.  But perhaps, and hopefully, Arthur St. George Walsh should, and will, take his rightfully earned place where he deserves to be, and that is at the head of a list.

This is the last instalment of The History of Welsh Hill Lists that I have written.  If any future instalment appears notification will be given on the Mapping Mountains site.

For the Preface please click {here}

For Part 1 please click {here}

For Part 2 please click {here}

For Part 3 please click {here}

For Part 4 please click {here}

For Part 5 please click {here}

For Part 6 please click {here}

For Part 7 please click {here}

For Part 8 please click {here}

For Part 9 please click {here}

For Part 10 please click {here}

For Part 11 please click {here}

For Part 12 please click {here}

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales - Moel Hebog

Hill Lists – Cymru / Wales

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales

Introduction

To access Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales list please click {here}

Mynydd Mawr (SH 539 546) is situated in the Moel Hebog Group of hills and is listed as one of The Dominant Hills of Wales

Listings of hills in Britain have progressed since Sir Hugh Munro first compiled a list to the Scottish 3,000ft mountains that eponymously now bear his name of the Munros.  Since Sir Hugh’s list was first published in the 1891 Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal the concept of how to differentiate one hill from another has developed with this association now mainly relying upon what is referred to as prominence.  This term is also known as reascent and drop, with this being the height gain between summit and connecting bwlch to the higher parent peak via the watershed.

Although differentiating one hill from another mainly relies upon prominence, it is not the only tool used to do so, as such criterion as distance, and height and prominence combined have also been used.  But prominence is now the main criterion used to differentiate one hill from another.

The concept of prominence was first investigated by the early hill list authors such as Corbett and Moss who employed the use of a single ring contour in their listings.  This system for cataloguing hills relied upon maps of the day that were based on ring contours at 50ft intervals, therefore a hill may be included that had a 5ft prominence or less because it had a separate ring contour, this is an obvious failing in this system.

However, Corbett had initialised the concept of objective judgment in how to make this all important differentiation between one hill and another, whereas Munro relied upon subjective judgment when he differentiated between his Separate Mountains (Munros) and their Subsidiary Tops (Munro Tops).

This objective judgement took its next stage forward when Carr and Lister used a 100ft criterion to differentiate one hill from another in their book to ‘The Mountains of Snowdonia’ which was published in 1925 by John Lane The Bodley Head Limited of London.  This use of 100ft by Carr and Lister can be considered as the first objective height differentiation and therefore the first use of how we now view the term prominence.

Although, as mentioned previously, there have been other use of criterion to differentiate one hill from another, there is a definite line between how the use of prominence has evolved, this line can be viewed as a link, but this link does not have many connecting parts to it, and up until the Dominant listing that this Introduction details, that connecting part only involved one link, and that is Relative Height, and now the second connecting link of Dominance has been added.

The difference between Prominence and Relative Height can be summarised as the following, with the explanation of Dominance then following:

Prominence is applied to hills whose qualification also depends upon minimum height.

Relative Height is applied to hills whose qualification is just dependent upon a minimum prominence.

Dominance is applied to hills whose prominence equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.

For those that are not initiated with the intricacies of hill list criteria the above explanation can sometimes be a difficult concept to understand, but the essence being is that Prominence is used as part of a criteria in conjunction with another criterion which is usually Minimum Height, whereas Relative Height is normally used as a singular criterion that is not dependent upon any form of minimum height except for that stipulated for its relative height, whereas Dominance relies upon the relationship between the hill’s prominence and its absolute height and is part of a criteria in conjunction with another criterion which is Minimum Height.

The first use of what we now refer to as Relative Height in a published hill list was by Eric Yeaman in his ‘Handbook of the Scottish Hills’ which was published in 1989 by Wafaida.  However, the term Relative Height was coined by Alan Dawson for the Marilyns which were first published in ‘The Relative Hills of Britain’ book by Cicerone Press in 1992.

These two publications dispensed with the concept of Prominence with Eric Yeaman using 100m of Relative Height as the main part of his Scottish list and Alan Dawson using 150m for his British list.

The next link in this small chain that takes in Prominence and Relative Height is Dominance, and therefore Dominance can be viewed as the next step in the evolutionary process of Prominence.

Dominance is a new concept for a published list to hills within Britain and to the knowledge of the author was first used for hills within Britain in early 2009 under the working title of ‘The Ultra Prominent Summits of Wales’, this title was shortened to the UPPs and was later changed to ‘The Dominant Hills of Wales.’  The change of name was instigated after a discussion with Mark Trengove who pointed out that the same concept of Dominance had been used by Eberhard Jurgalski in written format in 2001 and in published format in 2004, and as the 5,000ft prominence world peaks are known as the Ultras, their title having been shortened from the Ultra Prominent Peaks, it was sensible not to use a working title that was similar to another list that used different criteria.  Therefore, the title of Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales became the norm and the term of Dominance used to describe it, with the term Y Trechol being the Welsh for ‘The Dominants.’

The concept of Dominance was independently conceived by the author and was not copied from Eberhard as until discussing the concept of this list with Mark Trengove, I had not heard of Eberhard Jurgalski, but the term ‘Dominance’ follows Eberhard’s lead, as this is the norm when dealing with terms such as Prominence and Relative Height, each in turn were coined by someone and then they have become terms used by many.

To fulfil the qualification of a hill being Dominant its prominence has to be first known.  Therefore a Dominant list cannot be compiled unless the Prominence of each hill is known beforehand, and for a country such as Wales there are many hills that qualify under a stipulated minimum prominence of 30m.  I thought it wise to follow this minimum prominence figure as this had been previously used in a number of listings, these are briefly detailed below.

For Wales these 30m minimum prominence based lists were first published over a period of 20 years from 1984–2004.  These listings were reliant upon data produced by Terry Marsh, Michael Dewey and Myrddyn Phillips.  However, although all the lists produced by these people specified a minimum drop of 30m none of them listed the actual drop figure; this was added at a later date.  During this time listings to the majority of these hills were also independently produced by E. D. ‘Clem’ Clements whose work appeared on the RHB Yahoo Group database.

The theory of Dominance was conceptualized shortly after all the drop values were added to my hand written Master Lists and the 100m height bands expanded upward to include all P30 summits in Wales.  This Dominance criterion was conceptualized at approximately the same time as that of Remoteness, with both taking form from the same question – ‘what else can be considered once prominence values are given to all hills?’  Once this question was asked the theory of Dominance sprung in to my mind and that of Remoteness soon followed.

The Remoteness list was later published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website in 2011, and updated and co-authored with Aled Williams and published by Europeaklist, Haroldstreet and Mapping Mountains in April 2015.  But until now the Dominance list has never been published.

Before detailing what Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales list consists of it may be prudent to detail the qualification for the main list:

Those P30 hills whose prominence equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.

Also included is a list to the Lesser Welsh Dominants, these are the additional P30 summits whose prominence is between one third and half that of their absolute height.

To access Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales list please click {here}

The list consists of the following:

Group:  Each hill appears under their Group, this is the group / range that the hill is a part of.  For example; Carnedd Llywelyn (SH 683 643) is part of the hill group known as the Carneddau.  The Groups are arranged from north to south on a west to east orientation.  The names of the Groups used in this list have received extensive input from Aled Williams.

Name:  This is considered the most appropriate name for the hill with respect to the information available to the author.  Sometimes the name used does not correspond to current Ordnance Survey map spelling and composition or the name may not appear on any map.  Where no appropriate name has been discovered for the hill from any source, the Point (for example; Pt. 78m) notation is used rather than making up a name that has no local or historical evidence of use.  The Welsh place-names that appear in this list and that were sourced from Ordnance Survey mapping are reproduced as simple compositions, with hyphenated and compound names reduced to the component elements.  It must be noted that this process will on occasion result in loss of pronunciation information and as such, is not ideal.  However, this protocol has been implemented in order to simplify the composition due to the inappropriate and inconsistent hyphen use that Ordnance Survey maps are prone to.

Dominance:  This is the Dominance of the hill’s height between bwlch and summit (its prominence) over that of its height from sea level (Ordnance Datum Newlyn) to its bwlch.  The Dominance is given as a percentage.

Region:  There are three Regions in Wales; North Wales, Mid and West Wales, and South Wales.  The Regional split of Wales used in this list has received extensive input from Aled Williams and will be detailed on the Mapping Mountains blog at a later date.

Sub-Region:  There are a number of Sub-Regions in Wales and those used in this list have received extensive input from Aled Williams and they will be detailed on the Mapping Mountains blog at a later date.

1:50,000 Map:  This column gives the number or numbers of the 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey Landranger map that the summit of the hill appears on.

1:25,000 Map:  This column gives the number or numbers of the 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey Explorer map that the summit of the hill appears on.

Grid Reference Summit:  This is the ten figure grid reference (10FGR) for the summit of the hill.  This has either been produced by an accurate survey, a map spot height or when neither is available by a centralised position in an uppermost contour ring.  When the accurate survey has been conducted independent of the Ordnance Survey a (S) for ‘survey’ will appear adjacent to the 10FGR, a (TP) if the 10FGR is taken to a ‘trig pillar’, a (B) if the 10FGR is taken to a ‘bolt’ or a ‘block’, a (L) if the 10FGR is taken to the position of a ‘levelled’ height on old maps, a (HH) if the 10FGR is taken from a ‘hand-held’ GPS unit, a (SH) if the 10FGR is taken to a ‘spot height’ either on current or old maps and an (I) if the summit position has been ‘interpolated’ from contours.

Height (m) Summit:  This gives the map height in metres of the hill above Ordnance Datum Newlyn (ODN), often referred to as sea level.  Where a height is quoted to a decimal place it implies that the hill has been surveyed by GPS / GNSS receiver (these heights may not match current Ordnance Survey map heights).  Where a ‘c’ (circa) appears preceding the height it means there is no known spot height available and the height has been estimated from contour interpolation.

Grid Reference Bwlch:  This is the ten figure grid reference (10FGR) for the bwlch of the hill.  This has either been produced by an accurate survey, a map spot height or when neither is available by a centralised position between converging hill to hill and valley to valley contours.  When the accurate survey has been conducted independent of the Ordnance Survey a (S) for ‘survey’ will appear adjacent to the 10FGR, a (L) if the 10FGR is taken to the position of a ‘levelled’ height on old maps, a (HH) if the 10FGR is taken from a ‘hand-held’ GPS unit, a (SH) is the 10FGR is taken to a ‘spot height’ either on current or old maps and an (I) if the bwlch position has been ‘interpolated’ from contours.

Drop (m) Summit to Bwlch:  This column details the prominence of the hill; this is commonly referred to as ‘drop’ or ‘reascent’.  The drop is the height difference between the summit and connecting bwlch to the higher parent peak along the watershed.  The letter ‘c’ before the drop figure signifies there is no spot height or surveyed height known for either summit or more usually, the bwlch, therefore a part of the drop figure has been estimated from contour interpolation.

Drop (m) – Bwlch to ODN:  This gives the map height in metres of the bwlch above Ordnance Datum Newlyn (ODN), often referred to as sea level.  Where a height is quoted to a decimal place it implies that the bwlch has been surveyed by GPS / GNSS receiver (these heights may not match current Ordnance Survey map heights).  Where a ‘c’ (circa) appears preceding the height it means there is no known spot height available and the height has been estimated from contour interpolation.

Notes:  This column gives details relevant to the hill.

With special thanks to Aled Williams and Mark Trengove for their continued support and to Eberhard Jurgalski for taking Dominance to the masses.  Thanks are also due to the people who submit 10 figure grid references to the Database of British and Irish Hills (DoBIH) and for DoBIH making these available for public use.

This list will appear in biweekly or monthly instalments with the fifth Group listed being Moel Hebog.  The Dominant Hills of Pen Llŷn will appear on the 11th February 2016.

To access Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales list please click {here}

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales - Moel Hebog

Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Mynydd Hiraethog

16.01.16  Y Faerdre (SH 781 794)

Y Faerdre (SH 781 794)

Y Faerdre takes in land that comprises three tops, two being distinctly appealing in shape, with the third lesser so.  The higher top comprises the ruins of Castell Deganwy, which is now no more than a few rock encrusted remains from the old castle’s wall that is now partly grassed over.

We had planned on visiting a few more P30s during the late afternoon but Alex wanted to visit his Grandfather who’s 90^th birthday it was today, we also had an appointment with a stove and a quite scrumptious cup a soup, and with the rain falling heavier upon an already wet land, the prospect of getting particularly wet did not enthuse us.

As Alex navigated us to a housing estate above the village of Deganwy the rain splattered across the car’s windscreen.  Pulling up we remained stubbornly seated in the car, not wanting to venture out and hoping that the rain would stop for a half hour or so, thus enabling a quick and dry ascent.  No such luck.

A footpath leads between houses on to closely cropped grassy fields where the attractive profile of the two highest points of Y Faerdre shot up in to view; both are relatively steep and well worth a visit.

The field proved wet and as we made our way up it we squashed our way through standing water and mud to get to the lower slopes that lead up to the remains of Castell Deganwy.  The fortification that once stood at the top of this hill was finally destroyed by the Welsh as part of a scorched earth policy under threat of an impending English invasion.

Alex heading toward the summit of Y Faerdre

Once at its top we assessed the summit for its high point and I placed the Trimble down to gather five minutes of data as the rain increased in strength.  Once packed away we descended the hill’s eastern slope and headed up to its near, but slightly lower neighbour.  If the afternoon had been dry I would have Trimbled this top, but rain and cold meant that we admired the view and scampered down to the comforts of the car.

Gathering data from the summit of Y Faerdre

The high point of Y Faerdre from its adjacent but slightly lower top

Before leaving Deganwy I drove down in to the village where Alex directed me to a car park, and he proceeded to set up a stove beside a bridge spanning the railway line.  Within a few minutes the water had boiled and was quickly poured in to two large mugs containing cup a soups.  Seldom have I tasted anything so appetising, it proved absolutely yummy, and kept the chilly, wet conditions at bay for ten minutes or so.

Time for a brew-up

LIDAR image of Y Faerdre (SH 781 794)

Postscript: 

Since the summit survey of this hill full LIDAR coverage is now available.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height and positional data that is now freely available for England and Wales.  Consequently the numerical details for this hill has been analysed using this technique, resulting in the LIDAR height and position for its bwlch being used.

Survey Result:

Y Faerdre (significant name change)

 

Summit Height:  109.0m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 78160 79432 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Bwlch Height:  30.4m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 79280 80334 (LIDAR)

Drop:  78.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch) 

Dominance:  72.08% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For further details please consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}

Mapping Mountains – Significant Height Revisions – 100m Twmpau and Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales

Bryn Maelgwyn (SH 795 805)

There has been a Significant Height Revision to a hill that is listed in the 100m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop, dominance and status of the hill derived from a Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit survey and LIDAR bwlch analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Bryn Maelgwyn (SH 795 805)

The criteria for the two listings that this height revision applies to are:

100m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 100m Sub-Twmpau, with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.

100m Twmpau by Myrddyn Phillips

Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales – Welsh P30 hills whose prominence equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  With the criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those additional Welsh P30 hills whose prominence is between one third and half that of their absolute height.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the start of the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 3^rd December 2015, and the list is now available in its entirety on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips

The name the hill is now listed by is Bryn Maelgwyn and it is adjoined to the Mynydd Hiraethog group of hills, which are situated in the northern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A2), and it is positioned with the B5115 road to its north, the A470 road to its west and minor roads to its south-east and north-east, and has the town of Llandudno towards the north-west.

When the original 100m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill was listed with a non-interpolated summit height of c 100m, based on the uppermost contour that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.  

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map

After the sub list was standardised, and interpolated heights and drop values also included the details for this hill were re-assessed and it was listed with an estimated c 43m of drop, based on an estimated c 106m summit height and an estimated c 63m bwlch height, with both heights based on interpolation of 5m contouring that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map.

The summit height produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey is 102.1m positioned at SH 79580 80540, and this comes within the parameters of the Significant Height Revisions used within this page heading, these parameters are: 

The term Significant Height Revisions applies to any listed hill whose interpolated height and Ordnance Survey or Harvey map summit spot height has a 2m or more discrepancy when compared to the survey result produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000 or analysis of data produced via LIDAR, also included are hills whose summit map data is missing an uppermost ring contour when compared to the data produced by the Trimble or by LIDAR analysis.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data from the summit of Bryn Maelgwyn

Therefore, the new listed summit height of this hill is 102.1m and this was derived from a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey, this is 3.9m lower than the previously listed summit height of c 106m, which was based on interpolation of 5m contouring on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Hiraethog 

Name:  Bryn Maelgwyn

OS 1:50,000 map:  115

Summit Height (New Height):  102.1m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 79580 80540 (Trimble GeoXH 6000) 

         

Bwlch Height:  63.5m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 79893 80558 (LIDAR)

Drop:  38.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch) 

Dominance:  37.76% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch) 

Myrddyn Phillips (January 2016)

Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Mynydd Hiraethog

16.01.16  Bryn Maelgwyn (SH 795 805) and Coed Gaer (SH 799 808)

Bryn Maelgwyn (SH 795 805)

This was the third of four relatively small walks in the company of Alex, who’s role as local guide proved beneficial, especially so for the route we were about to take, as the summit of  Bryn Maelgwyn is embedded in tangled woodland with the connection between it and Coed Gear being steep and pathless.

We parked at SH 795 802 where a couple of cars can be left just off the busy A470.  The grey skies that had pervaded the first two walks of the day remained with us, spitting occasional rain drops down from their depths.  Thankfully the rain was not heavy and as the majority of the walk was in woodland we’d be sheltered if its intensity increased.

A footpath leads in to the wood from beside the busy road and I followed Alex a short distance on the path before he veered leftward in to the morass of tangled bracken and undergrowth.  No paths from here on in, seemed to exist, and I was reliant on Alex finding the high point, he’d been here a couple of times before and confidently strode out toward the first false summit and then indicated that the true summit lay further on.  From this first vantage point it was impossible to see a higher point for the hill, but as we continued through the tangle of woodland the true summit soon veered up in front of us.

Alex heading for the summit of Bryn Maelgwyn

The high point of Bryn Maelgwyn proved to be beside a moss laden and partly collapsed wall and under a wind battered tree, with other trees forming a canopy around which were the remnants of discarded bottles and clothes.  These were the after effects of either overnighting in the wood or teenage parties.  We came across three of four examples of this during our walk; all were untidy and unnecessary mess.

An unnecessary mess

Once we decided where the summit lay I set the Trimble on top of my rucksack which was placed on the partly collapsed wall and with Alex’s help measured the offset down to the high point of the hill.  It took the Trimble about 20 minutes until it was activated to gather its five minutes of allotted data, we waited, patiently, chatting a safe distance below it.

Gathering data at the summit of Bryn Maelgwyn

Once the Trimble was closed off Alex led the way down steepening slopes and eventually out of the wood toward the attractive looking Coed Gaer, this hill proved fun as a path led up its western flank which was crowned by a small rock outcrop which had a barb wired fence running its length and which was positioned over steep ground, this was our way up, and one or two moves involving hand on rock and a balancing act getting over the fence, deposited us close to the summit, which consisted of a number of small rock outcrops vying for the accolade of being the highest point.

Steep wooded slopes on Bryn Maelgwyn

The shapely profile of Coed Gaer 

Outside of the wooded summit of Bryn Maelgwyn the hills that we had so far visited had all proved to be excellent vantage points, and as the Trimble gathered another five minute data set I looked out to the south-west toward the sea and snow-capped mountains in the distance. 

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 aligned with the high point of Coed Gaer

Gathering data at the summit of Coed Gaer 

For our brief time on the summit of Coed Gaer the rain had kept at bay, but as we descended through thickening woodland to our inward path the wet stuff started to fall again and would remain with us during our last walk of the day, this was to the top of The Vardre (SH 781 794), otherwise known as Castell Deganwy.  

LIDAR image of Bryn Maelgwyn (SH 795 805)

Postscript: 

Since the summit survey of these hills full LIDAR coverage is now available.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height and positional data that is now freely available for England and Wales.  Consequently the numerical details for these hills has been analysed using this technique, resulting in the LIDAR height and position for each bwlch being used.

Survey Result:

Bryn Maelgwyn 

Summit Height:  102.1m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000) (significant height revision)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 79580 80540 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Bwlch Height:  63.5m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 79893 80558 (LIDAR)

Drop:  38.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch) 

Dominance:  37.76% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

Coed Gaer (significant name change)

Summit Height:  134.0m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 79924 80840 (Trimble GeoXH 6000) (summit relocation)

Bwlch Height:  60.0m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 81486 81889 (LIDAR)

Drop:  74.0m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch) 

Dominance:  55.25% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For further details please consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}