Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Pedwarau - The 400m Hills of Wales and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales

Cefn Digoll (SJ 264 058)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau and Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the height, drop and dominance of the hill being confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey which took place on the 24^th and 28^th March 2017, with the bwlch of the hill also analysed via LIDAR data by Aled Williams.

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

Y Pedwarau - These are the Welsh hills at and above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams, with the introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 30th January 2017.

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales - These are the Welsh P30 hills whose prominence equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips.

The hill is a part of the Cefn Digoll 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 483 road and the village of Trewern to its north and the town of Y Trallwng (Welshpool) to its west north-west.  

The summit of Cefn Digoll

The hill appeared in the 400m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name Beacon Ring, this is the English name given to the summit area of the hill, with its Welsh counterpart being Caer Digoll.  During my early hill listing I did not lay emphasis on prioritising a name for a hill over that for its summit, and therefore on occasion I used a summit name in preference to that of the hill name, and the use of Beacon Ring is such an example as the hill is known in English as the Long Mountain.  This practice can be appropriate if the summit name is prioritised locally, otherwise for listing purposes it is customary to prioritise the hill name in preference to that of its summit.
  

Beacon Ring

408m

SJ265058

126

216

Marilyn. Clem/Yeaman. Trig pillar marked on map.

Also during my early hill listing I thought it sufficient to use English or anglicised names for hills even if a Welsh name existed, this in the main is not a practice that I now advocate, especially if the Welsh name has historical evidence of use, and as the English names for this hill and its summit have Welsh counterparts, these being Cefn Digoll and Caer Digoll respectively, the hill name of Cefn Digoll is being used. 

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales is Cefn Digoll, as this is the Welsh name for the hill.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Cefn Digoll

Name:  Cefn Digoll

Previously Listed Name:  Beacon Ring 

Summit Height:  408.3m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  126

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 26476 05824  

Drop:  305.0m (converted to OSGM15)

Dominance:  74.69%

For details on the survey of Cefn Digoll

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (April 2017)