Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – Y Pellennig – The Remotest Hills of Wales

Esgair y Llyn (SN 841 701) - Pellennig addition

There has been an addition to the list of Y Pellennig – The Remotest Hills of Wales instigated from map study and confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams and a subsequent Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams.  

Esgair y Llyn (SN 841 701)

The hill is situated in the Elenydd group of hills which are positioned in the central part of the Region of Mid and West Wales.  This grouping of hills forms one of the wildest in Wales and takes in some of the most remote hills in the country.  The hill is situated in an immense grassland of moor and tussocks with Llyn Cerrigllwydion Isaf to its south-east and the higher summits of Cnapyn Drawsffos (SN 834 706) to its north-west and Blaen Rhestr (SN 843 693) towards its south.  Any towns or villages are a far distance away with Ysbyty Ystwyth towards the west and Rhaeadr Gwy (Rhayader) towards the east.

The hill can be accessed from its north-east via a track that leads to the farmhouse of Glanhirin, a path then leads toward and up the north-eastern ridge of Blaen Rhestr.  However, an alternate route is from the east north-east via the Monks Trod, which is an ancient route across the hills developed by the Cistercian monks as a bi-way between the abbeys of Cwm-Hir and Strata Florida.  Whichever way is chosen it leads into land that is open and featureless, and when visiting the hill a day comprising good weather is highly recommended.

The name of the hill is Esgair y Llyn and its inclusion as a Pellennig was spotted by Aled as the Ordnance Survey enlarged mapping on the Geograph website gives this hill a 529m summit spot height and a 513m bwlch spot height, these values give the hill 16m of drop which is sufficient to enter the list of Pellennig hills with the caveat of the distance from the hill’s summit to the nearest paved public road being a minimum of 2.5km.  As Aled was analysing other hills in the vicinity against LIDAR data, he did likewise with Esgair y Llyn.  LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) is highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales.

Aled’s analysis of LIDAR data gave the hill a 528.8m summit height at SN 84118 70177, and a 513.3m bwlch height at SN 83811 70087, these values give this hill 15.5m of drop which is sufficient when coupled with its summit being 4.535km from the nearest paved public road for qualification as a Pellennig hill.

The subsequent Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey produced a summit height of 528.6m and a bwlch height of 513.0m, with these values giving this hill 15.6m of drop, which along with its remoteness is sufficient for this hill to be classified as a Pellennig.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Esgair y Llyn

This now brings the overall total for Y Pellennig to 169 hills for the Complete list (All Wales), with the total for the Mainland Wales list being 125 hills.  The Master List will be duly updated on the Mapping Mountains site.

The full details for the hill are:

Cardinal Hill:  Carny yr Hyrddod

Summit Height:  528.6m (converted to OSGM15)

Name:  Esgair y Llyn

OS 1:50,000 map:  135, 136, 147

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 84116 70174

     

Drop:  15.6m

Distance:  4.535km

The list of additions and deletions in the Pellennig list since the 1^st edition of Y Pellennig – The Remotest Hills ills of wales of Wales was published by Europeaklist (1^st edition, April 2015) is as follows:

ADDITIONS

Pen Diban (SH 112 205)

Ynys Arw (SH 266 945)

Bryn Llwyd (SN 835 920)

Esgair y Llyn (LIDAR data) (SN 841 701)

DELETIONS

Graig Fach (SN 821 931)

Y Pellennig – The Remotest Hills of Wales is now published by Mapping Mountains Publications (2nd edition, July 2016).

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (December 2016)