Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales

Cae Doctor (SH 304 399)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit height, its location, the drop and status of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis, with the bwlch LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Aled Williams, and a subsequent summit survey with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 conducted by Myrddyn Phillips, with the latter taking place on the 3^rd October 2018.

The summit of Cae Doctor (SH 30425 39978)

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

30-99m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m in height with 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 30-99m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales - Welsh P30 hills whose prominence  equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  With the criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those additional Welsh P30 hills whose prominence is between one third and half that of their absolute height, with the Introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 3^rd December 2015.

The hill is adjoined to the Pen Llŷn group of hills, which are situated in the western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and it has the A497 road to its immediate south-east and the B4417 road to its north-west, and has the small town of Nefyn to the north.

This hill was first listed in the Hills to be surveyed sub-list that accompanied the original Welsh 30-99m P30 list published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the invented name of Fron Oleu, with an accompanying note stating; Name from buildings to the South-West.

Fron Oleu

68m

SH305400

123

253

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 or as in this instance transpose the name of buildings that are situated near the summit of 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 historic documents, through this form of research an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found.

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

I visited this hill along with Aled Williams and leaving the summit we met the local farmer who had driven up a near track to find out what we were doing.  Having explained our interest in surveying and upland place-names, Awen Roberts told us that the hill does not have an individual name but the two fields that vie for the high point of this hill are known as Cae Doctor (67.0m at SH 30425 39978) and Cae Myllt (66.9m at SH 30421 39985), with the former the higher and being named as such as a doctor lives close to its field boundary.

The summit of Cae Myllt (SH 30421 39985)

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales is Cae Doctor, and this was derived from local enquiry.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Pen Llŷn

Name:  Cae Doctor

Previously Listed Name:  Fron Oleu

 

OS 1:50,000 map:  123

Summit Height:  67.0m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 30425 39978

Bwlch Height:  35.8m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 30747 40107 (LIDAR)

 

Drop:  31.2m (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch)

Dominance:  46.59% (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch)

My thanks to Aled Williams for initial LIDAR analysis of this hill’s bwlch

For details of the summit survey of this hill

Myrddyn Phillips (February 2019)