Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Trichant

Ffridd Nant y Gwyrddail (SH 674 147)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Trichant, with the criteria for the list that this name change applies to are:

Y Trichant – Welsh hills at and above 300m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub category entitled the Sub-Trichant consisting of all Welsh hills at and above 300m and below 400m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips and the Introduction to the list and the re-naming and publication history was published on Mapping Mountains on the 13^th May 2017.

The hill is adjoined to the Cadair Idris range of hills which are situated in the south-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it overlooks the double lakes of Llynnau Cregennan which are to its west south-west and is situated between the small community of Arthog to its west and the town of Dolgellau to its east north-east.  

Ffridd Nant y Gwyrddail (SH 674 147)

The hill appeared in the 200m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the partly invented name of Bryn Nant-y-gwyrddail with an accompanying note stating; Name from buildings to the South-West.  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.  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now advocate as with time and inclination place-name data can be improved either by asking local people or by examining historical documents, through this form of research an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found, and as the summit of this hill comprises bounded land the details for it were examined on the Tithe map.

Bryn Nant-y-gwyrddail

312m

SH674147

124

23

Name from buildings to the South-West

The term Tithe map is generally given to a map of a Welsh or English parish or township and which was prepared after the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act.  This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods.  The Tithe maps gave names of owners and occupiers of land in each parish and importantly for place-name research they also included the name of enclosed land.  This enclosed land is usually based on a field system, however not every field is given a name, but many are and especially so in Wales.

Extract from the Tithe map

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 168 on the Tithe map, this can be cross referenced against the apportionments; it is these apportionments that give the name of the owner or occupier of the land as well as the name of the land.  The land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as Nantgwyrddeil [sic], with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the county named as Merioneth and in the parish of Dolgelley [sic].

Extract from the apportionments

The name given this bounded land relates to a farm named Nant-y-gwyrddail that is positioned at SH 671 143 and to the south-west of this hill’s summit.  Having visited a number of neighbouring hills and surveying the critical bwlch of this hill I then visited this farm and met Ceri Williams and her young son and daughter.  Ceri and her husband; Gwern, had moved here recently from the Garndolbenmaen area north-west of Porthmadog, she explained that the farm is tenanted from the National Trust and confirmed their boundary, which takes in the land where the summit of this hill is situated.  As Ceri is a newcomer to this area she suggested I should visit Emyr Rees who farms from Tynyceunant (SH 688 152).

Ceri Williams of Nant-y-gwyrddail and family

As I pulled up in my car at the access track that leads to Tynyceunant, Emyr had just pulled up in his Landrover and was wielding a mighty mallet readying himself to work on a new fence post.  Emyr is aged 70 and has lived at Tynyceunant all his life and is a Welsh speaker.  After introducing myself and explaining my interest in upland place-names, we talked about the hills and their names.  Emyr told me that the land where the summit of this hill is situated is a part of Nant-y-gwyrddail and known as Ffridd Nant y Gwyrddail.  Emyr also gave me a number of other names for near hills, which will be detailed in later Significant Name Changes posts. 

Emyr Rees of Tynyceunant

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant is Ffridd Nant y Gwyrddail, and this name was derived from local enquiry, with the bounded land where the summit of the hill is situated confirmed by the Tithe map and substantiated with the present resident of the farm of Nant-y-gwyrddail.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Cadair Idris

Name:  Ffridd Nant y Gwyrddail

Previously Listed Name:  Bryn Nant-y-gwyrddail 

OS 1:50,000 map:  124

Summit Height:  311.5 (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 67419 14719 (LIDAR)

 

Bwlch Height:  237.7m (Leica GS15 & Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 66210 13444 (Leica GS15 & Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Drop:  73.8m (LIDAR summit and Leica GS15 & Trimble GeoXH 6000 bwlch)

For details on the bwlch survey of Ffridd Nant y Gwyrddail

Myrddyn Phillips (April 2018)