Friday 1 November 2019

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


Ash Tip (ST 031 663)

There has been a Significant Height Revision to a hill that is now 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 image of Ash Tip (ST 031 663)

The criteria for the two listings that this height revision 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 3rd December 2015.

The name the hill is now listed by is Ash Tip and this was derived from local enquiry, and it 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 forms a part of landscaped ground that once made up the Aberthaw quarry and lime works, and it is positioned with the B4265 road to its north, and has the small community of Sain Tathan (St Athan) towards the north-west.

When the original 30-99m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website this hill was not included in either the main P30 list or the Hills to be surveyed sub list, as contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps of the day showed the area that now makes up this hill as having no ring contours of note.

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

This area was re-examined when the OS Maps website became available online.  This is the replacement for OS Get-a-map and has contours at 5m intervals and for the majority of land comprising old mine workings it shows present day contours, as opposed to the blank space showed on the counterparts of the 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps.

Extract from the OS Maps 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.

The summit height produced by LIDAR analysis is 50.0m and as there are no contours of any significance on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps, this height comes 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.

Therefore, this hill’s new listed summit height is 50.0m and this was derived from LIDAR analysis, this is 40m higher than the uppermost 10m ring contour on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps.


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

Group:  Bro Morgannwg

Name:  Ash Tip

OS 1:50,000 map:  170

Summit Height (New Height):  50.0m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  ST 03170 66338 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  12.4m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  ST 03298 66735 (LIDAR)

Drop:  37.6m (LIDAR)

Dominance:  75.20% (LIDAR)


Myrddyn Phillips (November 2019)





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