Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – Y Pedwarau - The 400m Hills of Wales

Pt. 416.9m (SH 837 332) – 400m Sub-Pedwar addition

There has been an addition to the listing of the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Aled Williams and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of Pt. 416.9m (SH 837 332)

The criteria for the list that this addition applies to are:

Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales.  Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main list are five categories of sub hills, with this hill being included in the 400m Sub-Pedwar category.  The criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is published on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

Y Pedwarau - The 400m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The hill is being listed by the point (Pt. 416.9m) notation, and it is adjoined to the Arenig Fawr group of hills, which are situated in the central part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A2), and it is positioned with minor roads to its north-east, south-west and south-east, with the A494 road farther to its south-east, and has the town of Y Bala towards the east north-east.

When the original 400m height band of Welsh P30 hills compiled by Myrddyn Phillips was published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill was not included in the Hills to be surveyed sub list, as it was considered not to meet the criteria then used for this sub category.

After the sub list was standardised, and interpolated heights and drop values also included the details for this hill were re-evaluated and it was listed with 19m of drop, based on the 417m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map, and the 398m bwlch spot height that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map. 

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

However, it was not until LIDAR became available that the details for this hill could be accurately re-assessed.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales.

Therefore, the addition of this hill to 400m Sub-Pedwar status is due to LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 416.9m summit height and a 396.8m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 20.2m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a 400m Sub-Pedwar. 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Arenig Fawr

Name:  Pt. 416.9m

OS 1:50,000 map:  124, 125

Summit Height:  416.9m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 83741 33230 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  396.8m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 83567 33326 (LIDAR)   

Drop:  20.2m (LIDAR) 

For the additions, reclassifications and deletions to Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales reported on Mapping Mountains since the May 2013 publication of the list by Europeaklist please consult the following Change Registers:

 

Y Pedwarau

 

Y Pedwarau – 400m Sub-Pedwarau

 

Y Pedwarau – 390m Sub-Pedwarau

 

Y Pedwarau – 390m Double Sub-Pedwarau

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (May 2017)