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

Penarth (ST 188 720)

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, bwlch height and their locations, the drop, dominance and status of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR summit image of Penarth (ST 188 720)

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, and is now available in its entirety on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

The hill is adjoined to the Bro Morgannwg group of hills, which are situated in the southern part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C2), and it is positioned with the A4160 road to its south-west and the Bristol Channel to its east, and with the summit of the hill being a part of the town that takes its name from the hill; Penarth, which is situated to the south of the city of Caerdydd (Cardiff).

The hill appeared in the original 30-99m Welsh P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under a partly transposed and invented name of Penarth Head Hill, with an accompanying note stating; Name from headland to the East.

Penarth Head Hill

70c

ST189720

171

151

Name from the headland to the East

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 a headland and add the word Hill to it.  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

The land this hill incorporates takes in the headland that encloses the hill to its east; this is named Penarth Head on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps.  The summit of this hill is now a part of an urban development and town, which is named Penarth; with the town taking its name from the hill.  The translation of Penarth can mean head of the promontory; therefore Penarth Head is tautological, albeit with the repetition in a different language.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales is Penarth, and this was derived from contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps and deduction of the names meaning. 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Bro Morgannwg

Name:  Penarth

Previously Listed Name:  Penarth Head Hill

 

OS 1:50,000 map:  171

Summit Height:  72.2m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  ST 18875 72029 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  35.5m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  ST 16791 72417 (LIDAR)

 

Drop:  36.7m (LIDAR)

Dominance:  50.81%

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2019)

Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales

Parc Mawr (SO 059 717)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams.

Parc Mawr (SO 059 717)

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

Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales.  Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main Y Pedwarau list are five categories of sub hills, with this hill being listed in the 400m Sub-Pedwar category.  The criteria for 400m Sub-Pedwar status being all Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is published on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

The hill is adjoined to the Hirddywel group of hills, which are situated in the north-eastern part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B1), and it is encircled by minor roads, with the B4518 road further to its west, the A44 road further to its south and the A483 road further to its east, and has the small community of Abaty Cwm-hir (Abbeycwmhir) towards the south-west.

When the original 400m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website this hill was not included in the Hills to be surveyed sub list that accompanied the main P30 list, as it did not meet the criteria then used in this sub category.

After the sub list was standardised, and interpolated heights and drop values also included the hill was listed by the name of Great Park in the 1^st edition of the Y Pedwarau published by Europeaklist in May 2013.  This is a name that appears adjacent to this hill’s summit on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps. 

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

Since publication of the 1^st edition of Y Pedwarau the Tithe maps for Wales have become available online.  The term Tithe map is generally given to a map of a Welsh or English parish or township and which was prepared after the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act.  This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods.  The Tithe maps gave names of owners and occupiers of land in each parish and importantly for place-name research they also included the name of enclosed land.  This enclosed land is usually based on a field system, however not every field is given a name, but many are and especially so in Wales.

Extract from the Tithe Map

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 2 on the Tithe map, this can be cross referenced against the apportionments; it is these apportionments that give the name of the owner or occupier of the land as well as the name of the land.  The land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as Parc Mawr in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llanbister and in the county named as Radnor.

Extract from the apportionments

The intricacies of language and prioritising one in favour of another for listing a hill is fraught with complication, with originating Cymraeg names being anglicised and also originating English names being cymricised, examples such as these are more common in border country and especially so for anglicised forms.  There is no steadfast rule that fits all, but as a standard a name that has its origins in the Welsh language and where this is substantiated by either historic documentation and / or contemporary usage should be prioritised in favour of a contemporary anglicised or English version of the name.  Likewise, if a name exists where an element of it is in English and if this name applies to a hill that is situated in a Welsh speaking part of Wales it is standard practice to use a full Welsh term for the name.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales is Parc Mawr, and this was derived from the Tithe map, with the Welsh name for this hill prioritised over its English counterpart, which for listing purposes is standard practice.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Hirddywel

Name:  Parc Mawr

Previously Listed Name:  Great Park

OS 1:50,000 map:  136, 147

Summit Height:  439.3m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 05947 71717 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  413.5m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 05957 71955 (LIDAR)

Drop:  25.8m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (November 2019)

Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales

Mynydd Deulyn (SH 756 609) – Sub-Trichant addition

There has been an addition to the list of Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill confirmed via map spot height and contour interpolation.

Mynydd Deulyn (SH 756 609) and its higher northerly summit

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

Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales – Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the Sub-Trichant with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips, with the Introduction to the list and the renaming of it appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 13^th May 2017.

The name the hill is listed by is Mynydd Deulyn 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 between Llyn Crafnant to its west and Llyn Geirionydd to its east, with the A5 road to its south and the B5106 road, the Afon Conwy and the A470 road to its east, and has the village of Capel Curig towards the south-west and the town of Llanrwst towards the east. 

When the original 300m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website this hill was not included in the Hills to be surveyed sub list that accompanied the main P30 list, as it did not meet the criteria then used for this sub category. 

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

When the sub list was standardised, and interpolated heights and drop values also included the details for this hill were re-evaluated.  Its details were also re-examined when the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map became available online.  This mapping has many spot heights not on any other publicly available Ordnance Survey map.

The details for this hill were also re-assessed when the OS Maps website became available online.  This is the replacement for OS Get-a-map and has contours at 5m intervals which are proving consistently more accurate compared to the 5m contours that sometimes appear on Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps and the online Vector Map Local.  These re-assessments resulted in the hill being listed with an estimated c 20m of drop.

Extract from the OS Maps website

Therefore, the addition of this hill to Sub-Trichant status is due to the summit spot height and interpolation of bwlch contouring resulting in a 382m summit height based on the spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and an estimated bwlch height of c 362m based on interpolation of bwlch contouring between 360m – 365m on the OS Maps website, with these values giving this hill c 20m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a Sub-Trichant.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Carneddau

Name:  Mynydd Deulyn

OS 1:50,000 map:  115

Summit Height:  382m (spot height)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 75657 60903 (spot height)

Bwlch Height:  c 362m (interpolation)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 75760 61053 (interpolation)

Drop:  c 20m

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2019)

Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Pumlumon

13.09.19  Bryn Amlwg (SN 921 973), only bwlch surveyed

Beyond the gate is the bwlch of Bryn Amlwg

Bryn Amlwg is a great bulk of a hill whose summit now has wind turbines scattered across it.  These are a part of the Carno wind farm which was first installed in 1996 with 56 wind turbines.  The Carno II project extended the number to 68 with the new turbines reaching a tip height of 80m.

I’d visited the summit of Bryn Amlwg on one previous occasion, in October 2013.  I found the approach from the east to be attractive, and although the vast upland area of this hill still gives distant views any semblance of tranquillity it once had is now replaced by the hummed thud of turbine blades.

The trig pillar and wind turbines at the summit of Bryn Amlwg

Bryn Amlwg is a relatively prominent hill, and as such is listed as a Marilyn and Lesser Dominant.  Today it was its connecting bwlch and not its summit that I wanted to survey.  This point had already been LIDARed by Aled Williams, but as I had enjoyed a morning of breakfast at Suzanne’s, a visit to Lisa’s and catch up with Eryl and Rita in Llanidloes; this hill’s bwlch was just a few miles away and would form the first of six such surveys during the remainder of the day.

The bwlch of Bryn Amlwg is placed to the south-west of its summit in a closely cropped field next to a minor road and beside the drive that leads to a house named Hirnant.  Having knocked on the front door and received no reply I drove back down the drive and parked beside the minor road.  As I stepped out of my car a post van drew up, I explained what I wanted to do and the postman said that the field probably wasn’t a part of Hirnant’s land and that he was sure nobody would mind me wandering around in it for a few minutes.

The gate giving access to the field was only a few metres from where I had parked my car and I was soon walking on the cropped grass beside the mature boundary hedge which kept the minor road at bay.

The land gently ebbed upward to where the critical point lay; it then gently ebbed downward in a more confident fashion.  The point where each met was relatively easy to pinpoint and having the ten figure grid reference produced by Aled’s LIDAR analysis zeroed me in toward the critical point.

Once the Trimble was positioned atop my rucksack and the measurement offset between its internal antenna and the ground below was noted, I set it to gather data and stood back in the early afternoon sunshine.

Gathering data at the bwlch of Bryn Amlwg

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 set-up position at the bwlch of Bryn Amlwg

Five minutes data collection soon passes, and today I stood and looked out on a vividly greened and manicured field that blazed its way in to the almost iridescent blue above.  Both colours screamed out in unison.

Once data were gathered and stored I packed the Trimble away, turned and retraced my way back to the access gate, not a thing had stirred at Hirnant.  My next bwlch survey was only a short drive on the minor road and connects to the Pedwar of Pen y Waun Fawr (SN 878 949).  

Survey Result:

Bryn Amlwg

Summit Height:  488m (spot height)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 92161 97346 (hand-held GPS via DoBIH)

Bwlch Height:  318.7m (converted to OSGM15)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 87945 93874

Drop:  169m

Dominance:  34.68%

  

For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet

Mapping Mountains – Summit Relocations – Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales

Pt. 480m (SH 936 523)

There has been a Summit Relocation to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales, with the summit height and its position confirmed via a spot height on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map.

The criteria for the list this summit relocation affects are:

Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales.  Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height with 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main Y Pedwarau list are five categories of sub hills, with this hill being listed in the 400m Sub-Pedwar category.  The criteria for 400m Sub-Pedwar status being all Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is published on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

As the authors do not know an appropriate name for the hill either through local enquiry or historic research it is being listed by the point (Pt. 480m) notation, and it is adjoined to the Mynydd Hiraethog group of hills, which are situated in the northern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A2), and it is positioned with the A543 road to its north-west, the A5 road to its south and the B4501 road to its east, and has the village of Cerrigydrudion towards the south south-east.

When the original 400m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website this hill was not included in the Hills to be surveyed sub list that accompanied the main P30 list, as it did not meet the criteria then used in this sub category. 

When the sub list was standardised, and interpolated heights and drop values also included the details for this hill were re-evaluated and it was listed with a 478m summit height based on the spot height positioned at SH 932 526 that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.  This is also the height and position that the summit of the hill was listed in the 1^st edition of Y Pedwarau published by Europeaklist in May 2013.  However, toward the south-east of this position is another large 470m ring contour that did not possess a spot height on any publicly available map of the time.

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

Since publication of the 1^st edition of Y Pedwarau there are a number of Ordnance Survey maps now available online, one is the non-contour Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map.  This map is the recent replacement for a contoured map that had many spot heights not on any other publicly available Ordnance Survey map.  Importantly for this hill the recently available non-contour map shows a 480m spot height where the previously non-spot heighted 470m ring contour is positioned.

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

Another resource now available online is the WalkLakes website which hosts an interactive Ordnance Survey map originated from the Ordnance Survey Open Data programme.  This map has many spot heights not on any other publicly available Ordnance Survey map and shows a 479m spot height close to where the 480m spot height appears on the non-contour Vector Map Local.

Extract from the WalkLakes website

The position of the 480m spot height 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 it is positioned to a different feature such as in a conifer plantation, or when the high point of the hill is placed within a different map contour compared to its previous listed position, 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.

Therefore, the new summit height for this hill is 480m and is positioned at SH 93640 52330 and appears on the non-contour Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map , this position is not given a spot height on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps and is approximately 50 metres south-eastward from where the previously listed 478m summit is positioned and situated in a part of the conifer plantation that is positioned on the northern slopes of this hill.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Hiraethog

Name:  Pt. 480m

OS 1:50,000 map:  116

Summit Height:  480m (spot height)

Summit Grid Reference (New Position):  SH 93640 52330 (spot height)

Bwlch Height: c 457m (interpolation)

 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 92641 52999 (interpolation)

         

Drop:  c 23m

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (November 2019)