Tuesday 16 July 2019

Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – Yr Uchafion


Cefn Cwm Coel (SN 891 647) – 500m Sub-Uchaf deletion

There has been a deletion to a hill that is listed in the Yr Uchafion, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips on the 27th February 2019, with the bwlch position based on LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams.

Cefn Cwm Coel (SN 891 647)

The criteria for the list that this deletion applies to are:

Yr Uchafion – This is the draft title for the Welsh 500m P15s list that takes in all hills in Wales at or above 500m in height with 15m minimum drop.  Accompanying the main list are three sub lists, these are; 500m Sub-Uchaf, 490m Sub-Uchaf and the Double Sub category, with this hill being deleted from the 500m Sub-Uchaf category, the criteria for which are all Welsh hills at or above 500m in height with 14m or more and below 15m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams with the Introduction to the list being published on Mapping Mountains in November 2015.

The name of the hill is Cefn Cwm Coel and it is adjoined to the Elenydd group of hills which is situated in central part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and is positioned with the Claerwen Reservoir to the west and the Garreg Ddu Reservoir to the east, and has the town of Rhaesdr Gwy (Rhayader) towards its east north-east.

This hill was included when the original list of Welsh 500m P15s was compiled and given an estimated drop of c 18m based on the 504m spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map and an estimated bwlch height of c 486m based on interpolation of 10m contouring between 480m – 490m.

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

The details for this hill were reassessed when the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website became available online, and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map.  This mapping compliments the 504m summit spot height given on the 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 map and also includes a 489m spot height on the area of this hill’s bwlch, with these values giving this hill 15m of drop, which is the minimum required for Uchaf status.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website

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 only covers the bwlch of this hill and therefore its listed summit height remained at 504m, but as LIDAR analysis produced a bwlch height of 489.6m positioned at SN 88436 65271 this hill was reclassified from Uchaf status to 500m Sub-Uchaf status with 14m of drop.

The summit and bwlch of this hill have now been surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 resulting in a 503.0m summit height and a 489.6m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 13.4m of drop, which is insufficient for its continued classification as a 500m Sub-Uchaf.

Gathering data at the summit of Cefn Cwm Coel

Gathering data at the critical bwlch of Cefn Cwm Coel


The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Elenydd

Name:  Cefn Cwm Coel

OS 1:50,000 map:  147

Summit Height:  503.0m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 89142 64733

Bwlch Height:  489.6m (converted to OSGM15)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 88436 65372
   
Drop:  13.4m
 

For the additions, deletions and reclassifications to Yr Uchafion / The Welsh 500m P15s reported on Mapping Mountains please consult the following Change Registers:










For details on the survey of Cefn Cwm Coel

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (July 2019)

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