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

Mynydd Erw Barfau (SN 759 783)

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 by LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams.

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, accompanying the main Y Pedwarau list are five categories of sub hills, with this hill listed in the 400m Sub-Pedwar category.  The criteria for 400m Sub-Pedwar status being all Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m 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.

The hill is adjoined to the Elenydd group of hills, which are situated in the northern part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with the A4120 road and the Afon Rheidol to its west, and the B4574 road and the Afon Mynach to its south, and has the small community of Pontarfynach (Devil’s Bridge) towards the south-west.

The hill appeared in the 1^st edition of the Y Pedwarau published by Europeaklist in May 2013 under the name of Erw Barfau, 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.

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

Since publication of the 1^st edition of Y Pedwarau a number of place-name books have been accessed to either find or substantiate locally known and / or historic names for hills.  One of the books accessed is The Place-names of Cardiganshire, published in 2004 in three volumes by the British Archaeological Reports Ltd and researched by Iwan Wmffre.  It is this book that documents the name of Mynydd Erw Barfau from local information recorded by Iwan Wmffre, with the name of Erw Barfau being that of a farm which is situated to the west of this hill’s summit.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales is Mynydd Erw Barfau and this was derived from The Place-names of Cardiganshire, published in 2004 in three volumes by the British Archaeological Reports Ltd and researched by Iwan Wmffre.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Elenydd

Name:  Mynydd Erw Barfau

Previously Listed Name:  Erw Barfau

OS 1:50,000 map:  135, 147

Summit Height:  417.0m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 75904 78309 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  394.5m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 75878 78084 (LIDAR)

Drop:  22.5m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (January 2020)