Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – 500m Twmpau

Cwar yr Ystrad (SO 084 142) - 500m Sub-Twmpau addition

There has been a new addition to the listing of Twmpau (thirty welsh metre prominences and upward) hills due to analysis of LIDAR data by Aled Williams with a subsequent Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey.  The hill is listed in the 500m height band of Sub-Twmpau, with the criteria for the sub hills being 500m or more and below 600m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  Details to this height band of the Twmpau were published on the Mapping Mountains site on 15^th June 2015.

The hill did not appear in the Sub-List which accompanied the original Welsh P30 listings on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website as the Sub-List only included hills whose map details showed that when surveyed they may stand a chance of qualification to the main P30 list, with the title of the Sub-List being Hills to be surveyed.  As this hill is a part of a quarry contemporary 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey maps do not give it any ring contours, as is the norm for areas of land that have been quarried.  This hill is now listed as a Sub-Twmpau through the quarrying activities of past years that has resulted in producing a new bwlch for the hill.   Since first publication this Sub-List has been standardised and now includes all hills that have a minimum of 20m of drop and below 30m of drop.

The hill is situated in the Cymoedd Gwent group of hills and is placed in the Region of South Wales (C-2).  As its name suggests the hill is a part of a quarry with its qualification as a Sub-Twmpau partly due to past quarry activities, it is situated between the Pentwyn and Pontsticill Reservoirs to its west and the Talybont Reservoir to its north north-east, with the town of Merthyr Tudful to its south south-west and the small community of Trefil to its east south-east.

The hill can be accessed from a number of directions on public footpaths including from its south-west and from its north, whilst the route from the paved road north of Trefil also gives access onto the quarry track, but if wishing to ascend from this direction it should be noted that there is a barrier across the road beyond Trefil that is locked at 5.00pm and unlocked at 6.30am with online write ups stating this barrier is locked at weekends.

The name of the hill is Cwar yr Ystrad and its inclusion as a Sub-Twmpau is due to LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams.  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 gives the hill the following details:

Cwar yr Ystrad

Summit Height:  579.9m

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 08358 14245

Bwlch Height:  559.0m

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 08376 14189

Drop:  21.1m

The subsequent Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey produced a summit height of 579.3m and a bwlch height of 558.8m, with these values giving this hill 20.5m of drop, which is sufficient for this hill to be classified as a 500m Sub-Twmpau.

This now revises the total in the 500m Twmpau which will be updated accordingly.

The full details for the hill are:

Cardinal Hill:  Pen y Fan

Summit Height:  579.3m (converted to OSGN15)

Name:  Cwar yr Ystrad

OS 1:50,000 map:  160

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 08445 14278  

 

Drop:  20.5m

Cwar yr Ystrad (SO 084 142)

My thanks to Aled Williams for sending the details of this hill to me.

Myrddyn Phillips (January 2017)