Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Yr Uchafion and 500m Twmpau

Banc y Foel (SN 725 186)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Yr Uchafion and 500m Twmpau, with the summit height and drop of the hill being confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey which took place on the 6^th May 2018.

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

Yr Uchafion – Welsh hills at or above 500m in height that have 15m minimum drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams, with the Introduction to this list appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 4^th November 2015.

500m Twmpau – Welsh hills at or above 500m and below 600m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips.

The hill is adjoined to the Mynydd Du range of hills, which are situated in the western part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C1).  The hill is positioned with the A 4069 road to its east, and has the village of Llangadog towards the north and Brynaman towards the south.

Banc y Foel (SN 725 186)

The hill first made an appearance in an unpublished hill list in 1985 when Tony Blackburn listed it as Carn Pen-rhiw-ddu in The 500 Metre Tops of England and Wales, and was later included by Michael Dewey by the same name in his list entitled The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales that appeared in his Mountain tables book published by Cicerone in 1995.

Hill list authors are prone to list a hill by the name that appears nearest to its summit on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps, without much consideration for its local or historical confirmation, or whether map placement is appropriate, and in the case of this hill the name of Carn Pen Rhiw-ddu appears beside an ancient cairn on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps on the northern periphery of this hill’s summit plateaux and which is approximately 300 metres from the high point of the hill.

When this hill was first included in the Yr Uchafion and the list that later became known as the 500m Twmpau it was listed as Pen Rhiw-ddu, it was only towards the end of the compilation of the Yr Uchafion list that place-name enquiries were made with local farmers, grazers and landowners.

One of the local farmers contacted in this area grazes this hill from the south and he immediately gave the name of Banc y Foel when a detailed description of its position was given.  The farmer in question had grazed and gathered sheep on this hill for 50 years and was the third generation of his family to do so, saying that the names he gave were passed down to him by his father, a later enquiry with his mother who was then aged in her 80s also resulted in the same name being given for the hill.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Yr Uchafion and the 500m Twmpau is Banc y Foel and this was derived from local enquiry.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Du

Name:  Banc y Foel

Previously Listed Name:  Pen Rhiw-ddu

Summit Height:  531.6m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  160

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 72536 18670

Drop:  38.9m (converted to OSGM15)

For details on the survey of this hill

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (July 2018)

ills of Wales, and are reproduced below@