Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales and Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales

Cefn Sarnau (SO 014 341)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales and 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 initially conducted by Aled Williams and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of Cefn Sarnau (SO 014 341)

The criteria for the two listings 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 390m Sub-Pedwar category.  The criteria for 390m Sub-Pedwar status being all Welsh hills at or above 390m and below 400m 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.

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 Mynydd Epynt group of hills, which are situated in the south-eastern part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with the Afon Honddu and the B4520 road to its east, and has the small community of Capel Isaf (Lower Chapel) towards the north-east.

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 300m P30 list published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the name of Battle Hill, which is a prominent name positioned near the summit of this hill on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps.  This is also the name the hill was listed by in the 1^st edition of the Y Pedwarau published by Europeaklist in May 2013.

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

Since publication of the 1^st edition of Y Pedwarau 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. 

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

These and other maps enable research in to the use of names recorded by Ordnance Survey, and as the Ordnance Surveys series of Six-Inch maps and the historic 1:25,000 map only records the name of Cefn Sarnau it is evident that the name of Battle Hill is a relatively recent addition, with the land where the summit of this hill is situated also being confirmed as a part of Cefn Sarnau.

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

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales and Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Cefn Sarnau, and this was derived from contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps, with the use of the name Battle Hill confirmed a relatively recent addition through the Ordnance Surveys series of Six-Inch maps and the historic 1:25,000 map and the position of the summit in relation to the name now used confirmed via the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Epynt

Name:  Cefn Sarnau

Previously Listed Name:  Battle Hill

OS 1:50,000 map:  160

Summit Height:  397.6m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 01415 34161 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  355.65m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 01482 34779 (LIDAR)

Drop:  42.0m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (January 2020)