Wednesday 24 April 2019

Mapping Mountains – Significant Height Revisions – 200m Twmpau and Y Trechol – the Dominant Hills of Wales


Allt Wen (SH 745 772)

There has been a Significant Height Revision to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit height and its location, the drop and status of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis, and a subsequent survey with the Trimble GeoXH 6000, both conducted by Myrddyn Phillips with the latter taking place on the 15th October 2018.

Allt Wen (SH 745 772)

The criteria for the two lists that this height revision applies to are:

200m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m in height with 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 200m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m 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.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the start of the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 3rd December 2015.

The name of the hill is Allt Wen, and it is adjoined to the Carneddau group of hills, which are situated in the north-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and it is positioned with the A55 road and the coast to its north, and has the town of Conwy towards its east.

When the original Welsh 100m P30 list was published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill was listed with a 255m summit height based on the spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer 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.  LIDAR analysis was closely followed by the survey of this hill with the Trimble GeoXH 6000. 

LIDAR image of Allt Wen

The summit height produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey is 252.3m,  this is not a substantial revision when compared to some revised heights, and it does come within the parameters of the Significant Height Revisions used within this page heading, these parameters are:

The term Significant Height Revisions applies to any listed hill whose interpolated height and Ordnance Survey or Harvey map summit spot height has a 2m or more discrepancy when compared to the survey result produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000 or analysis of data produced via LIDAR, also included are hills whose summit map data is missing an uppermost ring contour when compared to the data produced by the Trimble or by LIDAR analysis.  As heights on different scaled Ordnance Survey maps are not consistent the height given on the 1:25,000 Explorer map is being prioritised in favour of the 1:50,000 Landranger map for detailing these revisions.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Allt Wen

Therefore, this hill’s new listed summit height is 252.3m and this was produced by surveying with the Trimble GeoXH 6000, this is 2.7m lower than its previously listed height of 255m which was based on the spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map.


ills of Wales, and are reproduced below@
The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Carneddau

Name:  Allt Wen

OS 1:50,000 map:  115

Summit Height (New height):  252.3m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 74546 77264  

Bwlch Height:  160.2m (converted to OSGM15)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 74855 77154

Drop:  92.1m

Dominance:  36.51%



Myrddyn Phillips (April 2019)





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