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

Mynydd Rhymni (SO 126 089)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill confirmed via LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams.

LIDAR image of Mynydd Rhymni (SO 126 089)

The criteria for the list 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, the list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is published on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

The hill is adjoined to the Cymoedd Gwent group of hills, which are situated in the north-eastern part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C2), and it is encircled by roads with the A465 to its north-west, the B4257 and A469 to its west, the B4256 to its south and the A4048 to its east, and has the town of Tredegar towards the north-east and Rhymni (Rhymney) towards the south-west.

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 400m P30 list published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Rhymney Hill, which is a prominent name that appears beside the summit of this hill on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps.  The composition of this name was changed to Rhymni Hill when the 1^st edition of the Y Pedwarau was published by Europeaklist in May 2013.

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

The intricacies of language and prioritising one in favour of another for listing a hill is fraught with complication, with originating Cymraeg names being anglicised and also originating English names being cymricised, examples such as these are more common in border country and especially so for anglicised forms.  There is no steadfast rule that fits all, but as a standard a name that has its origins in the Welsh language should be prioritised in favour of a contemporary anglicised or English version of the name, and ideally for this to be substantiated by either historic documentation and / or contemporary usage.  Likewise, if a name exists where an element of it is in English and if this name applies to a hill that is situated in a Welsh speaking part of Wales it is standard practice to use a full Welsh term for the name.  It is also standard practice to use a Welsh name for a hill if another name exists that has originated in a different language.

Since publication of the 1^st edition of this list by Europeaklist in May 2013 there has been a thorough review of all hill names where a full Welsh term has not been used.  Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales is Mynydd Rhymni, with the full Welsh term for the name favoured over that of the mixed language version previously used.  This keeps uniformity with other hill names in the area which use the term Mynydd.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Cymoedd Gwent

Name:  Mynydd Rhymni

Previously Listed Name:  Rhymni Hill

OS 1:50,000 map:  161

Summit Height:  457.1m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 12603 08983 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  379.1m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 14083 07664 (LIDAR)

Drop:  78.0m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (January 2020)