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

Lan Cilpebyll (SN 988 363)

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.

LIDAR image of Lan Cilpebyll (SN 988 363)

This was initiated by Joe Nuttall who produced a summit analysis programme that used LIDAR with an alternative height map (DEM) allowing identification of summits and cols and thereby drops.  The resulting spreadsheet that Joe produced contains over 29600 hills.

This spreadsheet is being evaluated by DoBIH Editors and others, and for this particular hill it was Jim Bloomer who initially assessed its height and that of its adjacent peak via LIDAR analysis.

Myrddyn Phillips then evaluated this hill’s details via LIDAR analysis and confirmed its height and hence its prioritised Trichant status.

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 Mynydd Epynt group of hills, which are situated in the south-eastern part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with minor roads to its east, north and west and farther afield it has the A40 road to its south and the B4520 road to its east, and has the hamlet of Merthyr Cynog towards the north north-west.

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

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 300m P30 list published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Mynydd Bach and listed as a 387m map heighted twin summit with its adjacent hill positioned at SN 992 359.  With the name of Mynydd Bach being appropriate for the adjacent hill but not necessarily for this hill.

Mynydd Bach

387m

SN992360

160

188

Two tops of same height - other at SN988363

As this hill comprises bounded land the Tithe map was consulted.  The term Tithe map is generally given to a map of a Welsh or English parish or township and which was prepared after the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act.  This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods.  The Tithe maps gave names of owners and occupiers of land in each parish and importantly for place-name research they also included the name of enclosed land.  This enclosed land is usually based on a field system, however not every field is given a name, but many are and especially so in Wales.

Extract from the Tithe map

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 798 on the Tithe map, this can be cross referenced against the apportionments; it is these apportionments that give the name of the owner or occupier of the land as well as the name of the land.  The land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as Lan (of the farm) Cilpebyll in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Merthyr Cynog and in the county named as Brecon.

Extract from the apportionments

The land associated with Mynydd Bach does not have a number given it on the Tithe, this signifies that this land was not tenanted and therefore viewed as Common land with the consolidating or extending of land holdings in to larger areas compared to that of the Tithe, and these larger areas of land would include land communally farmed under the open field system.  As such, this land had its own individual name which can be thought of as that of the hill; Mynydd Bach.  Whereas, the land named as Lan (of the farm) Cilpebyll on the Tithe was tenanted and took in a smaller patch of bounded land as indicated on the Tithe.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Lan Cilpebyll , and this was derived from the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Epynt

Name:  Lan Cilpebyll

Previously Listed Name:  Mynydd Bach

OS 1:50,000 map:  160

Summit Height:  385.9m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 98815 36321 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  310.4m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 98629 37385 (LIDAR)

Drop:  75.5m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips (August 2020)