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

Graig (SO 299 237)

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

LIDAR summit image of Graig (SO 299 237)

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 Mynyddoedd Duon group of hills which are situated in the eastern part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C3), and it is positioned with minor roads to its west, south and east, with the A465 road further to its south-east, and has the small community of Cwmyoy towards the south.

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 Moel y Darren, with an accompanying note stating; Name from escarpment edge to the North-West.

Moel y Darren

340c

SO300237

161

13

Name from escarpment edge to the North-West

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 an escarpment and put the word Moel 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 series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps that name this hill as Graig.

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 Graig, and this was derived from the series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynyddoedd Duon

Name:  Graig

Previously Listed Name:  Moel y Darren

OS 1:50,000 map:  161

Summit Height:  348.4m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 29983 23705 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  318.0m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 30011 23797 (LIDAR)

Drop:  30.4m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips (January 2020)