Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau

Cribyn (SO 198 917)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau, with the summit height of the hill being confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey which took place on the 7^th March 2017.

The criteria for the list that this name change applies to are:

200m Twmpau - All Welsh hills at and above 200m and below 300m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.

The hill is adjoined to the Beacon Hill range, this group of hills is situated in the north-eastern part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B1), and is positioned above the A 489 road and the village of Sarn which are to its south-east, and between the larger villages of Yr Ystog (Churchstoke) to the east north-east and Ceri (Kerry) to the west south-west.  

Cribyn (SO 198 917)

The hill appeared in the 200m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name Cefnyberin, with an accompanying note stating; Name from buildings to the North-West & South.  During my early hill listing I thought it appropriate to either invent a name for a hill, or use a name that appeared near to the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey maps of the day.  My preference was to use farm names and put Pen, Bryn or Moel in front of them and in this instance, use the name of a near farm and exclude the word Isaf, Little and Great, as in: Cefnyberin Isaf, Little Cefnyberin and Great Cefnyberin, all of which are names given to three farms near this hill.  This is not a practice that I now advocate as with time and inclination place-name data can be improved either by asking local people or by examining historical documents, through this form of research an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found, and in the case of this hill it was a local farmer who gave the name the Cribyn.  

Cefnyberin

241m

SO199917

136

214/216

Name from buildings to the North-West & South

  

The local farmer is Mark Bufton who farms from Cefnyberin which is to the immediate south of the hill.  Although the summit of this hill is not on Mark’s land he has farmed the southerly land of this hill for the past 17 years.  Mark is not a Welsh speaker and did not know the meaning of the name he gave for the hill, he spelt the hill’s name as the Cribben, this is an anglicised version of the Welsh word Cribyn, which can be translated as little crest, and when visiting the summit of this hill its small summit ridge extends northward, in affect this is its little crest.

Mark Bufton with the Cribyn in the background

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 200m Twmpau is the Cribyn, and this name was derived from local enquiry. 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Beacon Hill

Name:  Cribyn

Previously Listed Name:  Cefnyberin 

Summit Height:  241.5m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  136

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 19882 91763  

Drop:  39m

For details on the survey of the Cribyn

Myrddyn Phillips (March 2017)