Sunday 14 April 2019

Mapping Mountains – Summit Relocations – 100m Twmpau


Cae Alen (SH 781 758)

There has been a Summit Relocation to a hill that is listed in the 100m Twmpau, with the summit height, its location, the drop and status of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis, and a subsequent summit survey with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 conducted by Myrddyn Phillips, with the latter taking place on the 10th October 2018.

LIDAR image of Cae Alen and Bwlch Mawr

The criteria for the list that this summit relocation applies to are:
               
100m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height with 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 100m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m 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.

The name of the bounded land where the summit of this hill is situated is Cae Alen and this was derived from the Tithe map, and it is this name that the hill is now listed by.  The hill 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 B5106 road to its west and the Afon Conwy (River Conwy) to its east, and has the town of Conwy towards its north.

This summit relocation relates to two points, with the north-easterly point given a 130m summit spot height positioned at SH 781 758 on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps, and the south-westerly point given a small uppermost 130m ring contour positioned at SH 777 755.

When the origin 100m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, the north-easterly 130m map heighted summit positioned at SH 781 758 was prioritised for P30 status over that of the south-westerly point positioned at SH 777 755.

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

The details for these hills were re-assessed when the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local became available online, this map is hosted on the Geograph website and is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, and as an uppermost contour ring should be prioritised over that of a same map heighted spot height the south-westerly point positioned at SH 777 755 was now prioritised for P30 status over the north-easterly 130m spot heighted summit positioned at SH 781 758.

It was not until LIDAR became available and analysed that the details for these hills 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 image of Bwlch Mawr

The height produced by LIDAR analysis and a subsequent survey with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 confirmed the north-easterly summit as higher:

North-easterly summit; Cae Alen:  129.1m at SH 78116 75814

South-westerly summit; Bwlch Mawr:  128.4m at SH 77790 75561


This comes within the parameters of the Summit Relocations used within this page heading, these parameters are:

The term Summit Relocations applies to any listed hill whose summit meets the following criteria; where there are a number of potential summit positions within close proximity and the highest point is not where previously given, or a relocation of approximately 100 metres or more in distance from either the position of a map spot height or from where the summit of the hill was previously thought to exist, or when the summit of the hill is in a different field compared to where previously given, or when the natural and intact summit of a hill is confirmed compared to a higher point such as a raised field boundary that is judged to be a relatively recent man-made construct.  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 relocations.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Cae Alen

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Bwlch Mawr

Therefore the height produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey is 129.1m positioned at SH 78116 758124, this position is given a 130m spot height on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps and is approximately 400m north-east from where the previously listed summit position is situated which was surveyed as being 128.4m in height and positioned at SH 77790 75561.


The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Carneddau

Name:  Cae Alen

OS 1:50,000 map:  115

Summit Height:  129.1m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference (new position):  SH 78116 75814

Bwlch Height:  34.8m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 77629 74003 (LIDAR)

Drop:  94.3m (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch)



Myrddyn Phillips (April 2019)



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