Thursday 27 August 2020

Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – The Welsh Highlands – Uchafion Cymru


Pt. 577m (SN 808 768) – 500m Sub-Uchaf addition

There has been an addition to the listing of The Welsh Highlands – Uchafion Cymru, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from detail on contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data.

The criteria for the list that this addition applies to are:

The Welsh Highlands – Uchafion Cymru This is the revised draft title for the Welsh 500m P15s list that takes in all hills in Wales at or above 500m in height with 15m minimum drop.  Accompanying the main list are three sub lists, these are; 500m Sub-Uchaf, 490m Sub-Uchaf and the Double Sub category, with this hill being added as a 500m Sub-Uchaf.  The criteria for which are all Welsh hills at or above 500m in height with 14m or more and below 15m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams with the Introduction to the list being published on Mapping Mountains in November 2015 and an update relating to the list appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 19th June 2019.

As the authors do not know an appropriate name for the hill either from historic research or from local enquiry it is being listed by the point (Pt. 577m) notation, and it 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 A44 road to its north, the A4120 road to its west, the B4574 road to its south-west, a minor road to its south and the A470 road to its east, and has the village of Pontarfynach (Devil’s Bridge) towards the west.

This hill was not included as a P14 Sub in the original list of Welsh 500m P15s that later became known as Yr Uchafion and latterly as The Welsh Highlands – Uchafion Cymru, as with a 577m summit spot height and bwlch contouring between 560m – 570m that appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map its interpolated drop value was judged insufficient for 500m Sub-Uchaf status.

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

Since the original compilation of this list there are now a number of interactive maps originated from Ordnance Survey data that are available online.  One of these is the mapping on the OS Maps website.  This is the replacement for OS Get-a-map and has contours at 5m intervals which are proving consistently more accurate compared to the 5m contours that sometimes appear on Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps and used to appear on the online Vector Map Local.  This mapping has bwlch contouring between 560m – 565m, with interpolation giving an estimated bwlch height of c 563m.

Extract from the OS Maps website

Therefore, the addition of this hill to 500m Sub-Uchaf status is due to detail on contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data, resulting in a 577m summit height and an estimated c 563m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill c 14m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a 500m Sub-Uchaf.


The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Elenydd

Name:  Pt. 577m

OS 1:50,000 map:  135, 136, 147

Summit Height:  577m (spot height)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 80889 76890 (spot height)

Bwlch Height:  c 563m (interpolation)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 80536 77083 (interpolation) 
  
Drop:  c 14m (spot height summit and interpolated bwlch)
 

For the additions, deletions and reclassifications to The Welsh Highlands – Uchafion Cymru reported on Mapping Mountains please consult the following Change Registers:










Aled Williams and Myrddyn Phillips (August 2020)

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