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

Grib Ddu (SH 605 483)

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 image of Grib Ddu (SH 605 483)

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 Moelwynion group of hills, which are situated in the north-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and it is positioned with the A498 road to its north and south-west, and has the village of Beddgelert towards the east.

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 300m P30 list published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the name of Mynydd Sygyn, which is a prominent name positioned near the summit of this hill on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps.

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

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 contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map that places the name Grib Ddu close to the summit of this hill and the series of Six-Inch maps that confirm this placement.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Grib Ddu, and this was derived from contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps, with its position in relation to this hill confirmed via the Ordnance Surveys series of Six-Inch maps.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Moelwynion

Name:  Grib Ddu

Previously Listed Name:  Mynydd Sygyn

OS 1:50,000 map:  115

Summit Height:  319.7m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 60554 48348 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  281.3m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 60677 48131 (LIDAR)

Drop:  38.4m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips (January 2020)