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

Murgwyn (SH 351 442)

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 derived from spot heights on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps.

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 Pen Llŷn group of hills, which are situated in the western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and it is positioned with the coast to its north-west and the B4417 to its south-east, and has the village of Llithfaen towards the south.

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Gallt y Bwlch, which is a prominent name that appeared close to the summit of this hill on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps of the day.

Gallt y Bwlch

300m

SH351442

123

253/254

302m on 1984 1:50000 map

During my early hill listing I paid little regard to name placement on the map, or the meaning of names and to what feature the name was appropriately applied to.  Therefore I prioritised names for listing purposes that I now understand are either inappropriate or where another name is viewed as being more appropriate.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map

As the summit of this hill comprises bounded land the details for it were examined on the Tithe map.  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 814 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 Murgibn Ucha in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Pistyll in the county named as Carnarvonshire [sic].

Extract from the apportionments

When researching the data in this and other lists I made extensive place-name enquiries with a number of local farmers, gamekeepers, landowners and academics and it was during this process that I contacted Paul Worsley who lives at the farm of Bwlch (SH 347 434).  At the time of our conversation Paul was aged 66 and had grazed sheep on this hill all of his adult life, with his family having lived at this farm for over 100 years.  Paul told me that the hill is known as Murgwyn and this name was passed down to him by his uncle. 

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Murgwyn, and this was derived from local enquiry, and in all likelihood the meaning of the Tithe name of Murbign is similar, if not the same to that of Murgwyn, and as the latter has come from a contemporary local source it is this name that is being used for that of the hill.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Pen Llŷn

Name:  Murgwyn

Previously Listed Name:  Gallt y Bwlch

OS 1:50,000 map:  123

Summit Height:  302m (spot height)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 35128 44215 (spot height)

Bwlch Height:  274m (spot height)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 35270 44043 (spot height)

Drop:  28m (spot heights)

Myrddyn Phillips (January 2020)