Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales

Pen y Drum (SH 770 608)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales, with the summit height derived from a spot height and the bwlch height, its location and the drop of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR bwlch image for Pen y Drum

The criteria for the list that this name change 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 13th May 2017.

The hill is adjoined to the Carneddau group hills which are situated in the north-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and it is positioned with the A5 road and the Afon Llugwy to its south and the A470 road and the Afon Conwy to its east, and has the town of Llanrwst towards the east and the village of Betws-y-coed towards the south south-east.

The hill originally appeared in the 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the partly invented and transposed name of Pen Llyn Glangors, with an accompanying note stating; Name from lake to the South.

Pen Llyn Glangors

319m

SH771608

115

17

Name from lake to the South

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, use the name of a lake and put the word Pen in front of 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

Since publication of these P30 lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website there have been a number of Ordnance Survey maps made available online, some of these are historic such as the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, and it is the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local and the series of Six-Inch maps that name this hill as Pen y Drum.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey non-contoured Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map

Extract from the series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Pen y Drum, and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, and the series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Carneddau

Name:  Pen y Drum

Previously Listed Name:  Pen Llyn Glangors

OS 1:50,000 map:  115

Summit Height:  319m (spot height)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 77077 60863 (hand-held GPS via DoBIH)

Bwlch Height:  276.9m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 77362 60573 (LIDAR)

Drop:  42m (spot height summit and LIDAR bwlch)

Myrddyn Phillips (December 2019)