Mapping Mountains – Summit Relocations – 200m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales

Coed y Bwnydd (SO 366 069)

There has been a Summit Relocation to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop, dominance and status of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of Coed y Bwnydd (SO 366 069)

The criteria for the two listings this summit relocation affects are:

200m Twmpau – Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 200m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop.

200m Twmpau by Myrddyn Phillips

Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales – Welsh P30 hills whose prominence equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  With the criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those additional Welsh P30 hills whose prominence is between one third and half that of their absolute height.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the start of the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 3rd December 2015, and the list is now available in its entirety on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips

The name the hill is listed by is Coed y Bwnydd and it is adjoined to the Mynyddoedd Duon group of hills which are situated in the eastern part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C3), and it is positioned with the Afon Wysg (River Usk) and the B4598 road to its west, the A40 road to its north and the A449 road to its east, and has the village of Raglan towards the east north-east and the town of Brynbuga (Usk) towards the south south-east.

When the original 100m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website this hill was included in the main P30 list under the name of Clytha Hill and listed with a 196m summit height, based on the spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map at SO 368 069.

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

The details for this hill were re-assessed when the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map became available online.  This mapping had many spot heights not on other publicly available Ordnance Survey maps and gives a second 196m spot height on the summit area of this hill and positioned at SO 367 069.  This additional 196m spot height also appears on Ordnance Survey data available on the Magic Maps website.

Extract from the Magic Maps website

However, it was not until LIDAR became available that the details for this hill could be accurately re-assessed.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales. 

                                        

LIDAR summit image of Coed y Bwnydd (SO 366 069)

The summit height produced by LIDAR analysis is 201.4m positioned at SO 36613 06919.  The above detail comes within the parameters of the Summit Relocations used within this page heading, these parameters are:

The term Summit Relocations applies to any listed hill whose summit meets the following criteria; where there are a number of potential summit positions within close proximity and the highest point is not where previously given, or a relocation of approximately 100 metres or more in distance from either the position of a map spot height or from where the summit of the hill was previously thought to exist, or when the summit of the hill is in a different field compared to where previously given, or when it is positioned to a different feature such as in a conifer plantation, or when the high point of the hill is placed within a different map contour compared to its previous listed position, or when the natural and intact summit of a hill is confirmed compared to a higher point such as a raised field boundary that is judged to be a relatively recent man-made construct.

Therefore, the summit height produced by LIDAR analysis is 201.4m positioned at SO 36613 06919, this position is to an embankment that is a part of an ancient hill fort and this ground meets the criteria used within this list, and is approximately 120 metres westward from where the previous listed summit is positioned.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynyddoedd Duon

Name:  Coed y Bwnydd

OS 1:50,000 map:  161

Summit Height:  201.4m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference (New Position):  SO 36613 06919 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  59.4m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 39308 08901 (LIDAR)

Drop:  142.0m (LIDAR)

Dominance:  70.50%

Myrddyn Phillips (February 2020)