Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales – Deweys

Watch Hill (NY 624 460) – Dewey deletion

This is one in a series of retrospective Hill Reclassification posts that detail hills whose status has altered in the listing of the Deweys and where I have had direct association with the status change.  These posts will tie in with a forthcoming Change Register giving detail to this list and its alterations since publication in the Mountain tables book.

Watch Hill (NY 624 460)

The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales are affectionately known after their hill list compiler; Michael Dewey.  This list mixes metric and imperial height in its criteria to bookend up to the 2000ft height band and takes in all hills in England, Isle of Man and Wales that are 500m and above and below 2000ft (609.6m) in height that have 30m minimum drop.

This list formed one of a number of lists that appeared in the Mountain tables book published by Constable in 1995 and at the time of publication comprised 373 hills with 164 in England, 5 in the Isle of Man and 204 in Wales.  The Deweys have undergone extensive revision since first publication with the initial stages forming the basis of this revision given below:

1995    Mountain tables published by Constable with 373 hills listed as Deweys.

April 2000    Strider (LDWA quarterly booklet) publishes contact details for David Purchase and Myrddyn Phillips who have found and list 24 and 14 possible new 500m tops respectively.

It was expanded versions of the above two lists that formed the basis of the next publication:

25^th May 2000    List of Possible 500 Metre Tops by Michael Dewey listing 44 hills.

David Purchase expands his Additional Dewey 500m Hills and Myrddyn Phillips produces lists of English 500m hills to measure and Welsh 500m hills to measure.

These lists formed the basis of the next publication:

29^th June 2000    Possible/Probable 500’s by Michael Dewey listing 77 hills.  Michael adopts following protocol; if one person proposes that a top should qualify as a 500 by personal survey, and is then confirmed by a second person, it should then be promoted to the main list.

April 2002    The 500+ Tops of England and Wales – The ‘New Deweys’ published in the Strider booklet and listing 66 new qualifying hills.

25^th May 2006    Rob Woodall republishes Michael’s main and possible/probable lists on the RHB Yahoo group file database. 

Mountain tables by Michael Dewey

The details for this deletion appear below:

The name the hill was listed by in the Deweys is Watch Hill, and it is adjoined to the Black Fell group of hills which are situated in the northern Pennines of England, and it is positioned with the B6413 road to its west, the A686 road to its south-east and the A689 road to its north-east, and has the village of Renwick towards the south-west.

This hill was not included in the original 1995 Constable publication, but with a 602m summit spot height and col contouring between 570m – 580m that appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map, the interpolated drop value was estimated sufficient for this hill to be considered a potential new Dewey. 

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

The above detail was noted by David Purchase who assessed the hill’s qualification on site.  These details were forwarded to the list author; Michael Dewey and the hill was added to the list on the 28^th July 2001. 

Since the inclusion of this hill in the Dewey list 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 gave a 574m spot height on the area of this hill’s col, and when coupled with the 602m summit spot height these values gave this hill 29m of drop.

As the drop value for this hill was near the minimum 30m qualifying mark, this hill was prioritised for a line survey which was conducted by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips on the 22^nd August 2012, resulting in 29.0m of drop and this hill’s subsequent deletion from Dewey status. 

The full details for the hill are:

Name:  Watch Hill

OS 1:50,000 map:  86

OS 1:25,000 map:  31

Summit Height:  603m (relative to 602m spot height)

Summit Grid Reference:  NY 62495 46038 (hand-held GPS during line survey)

Col Height:  574m (spot height and relative to 602m spot height and line surveyed drop)

Col Grid Reference:  NY 62090 45937 (hand-held GPS during line survey)

Drop:  29.0m (level and staff line survey)

Myrddyn Phillips (September 2020)

Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales

Bryn Llwyd (SN 772 763) – 400m Sub-Pedwar addition

There has been an addition to the listing of the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales, 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.

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 bylchau and thereby drops.  The resulting spreadsheet that Joe produced contains over 29,600 hills.

This spreadsheet is being evaluated by a number of people, including Ronnie Bowron, who passed the details of this hill to us.

The criteria for the list that this addition 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 being added to 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.

Y Pedwarau - The 400m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The name the hill is listed by is Bryn Llwyd, 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-east, the A4120 to its north-west and the B4574 road to its south, and has the village of Pontarfynach (Devil’s Bridge) towards the west.

When the 1^st edition of the Y Pedwarau was published by Europeaklist in May 2013, this hill was not included as it was listed with an estimated c 19m of drop, based on the 474m summit spot height and an estimated c 455m bwlch height, with the latter based on interpolation of 10m contouring that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.

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

With the summit analysis programme produced by Joe Nuttall and the examination of its data by Ronnie Bowron, the details for this hill have now been re-assessed against 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 re-assessment resulted in the hill being listed with an estimated c 453m bwlch height based on interpolation of 5m contouring between 450m – 455m, resulting in the drop value increasing to an estimated c 21m. 

Extract from the OS Maps website

Therefore, the addition of this hill to 400m Sub-Pedwar status is due to re-assessment of detail derived from contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data, resulting in a 474m summit height and an estimated c 453m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill c 21m of drop which is sufficient for it to be classified as a 400m Sub-Pedwar.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Elenydd 

Name:  Bryn Llwyd

OS 1:50,000 map:  135, 147

Summit Height:  474m (spot height)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 77211 76332 (spot height)

Bwlch Height:  c 453m (interpolation)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 77520 76421 (interpolation)

Drop:  c 21m (spot height summit and interpolated bwlch)

For the additions, reclassifications and deletions to Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales reported on Mapping Mountains since the May 2013 publication of the list by Europeaklist please consult the following Change Registers:

Y Pedwarau

Y Pedwarau – 400m Sub-Pedwarau

Y Pedwarau – 390m Sub-Pedwarau

Y Pedwarau – 390m Double Sub-Pedwarau

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (September 2020)

Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales

Hafod Llŷn (SN 625 700) – Sub-Trichant reclassified to Trichant

There has been a reclassification to the list of 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 and a subsequent Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey.

LIDAR image of Hafod Llŷn (SN 625 700)

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 29,600 hills.

This spreadsheet is being evaluated by a number of people, and for this particular hill it was Jim Bloomer who initially assessed the data on the spreadsheet produced for this hill against that produced via LIDAR.

Myrddyn Phillips then evaluated the details for this hill via LIDAR analysis and confirmed its height and drop and hence its reclassification to Trichant status.

The criteria for the list that this reclassification 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 name the hill is now listed by is Hafod Llŷn and this was derived from the Tithe map and local enquiry, and it is adjoined to the Hafod Ithel group of hills, which are situated in the western part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B3), and it is encircled by minor roads and farther afield it has the B4576 road to its west and the A485 road to its east, and has the village of Lledrod towards the east.

When the original 300m height band of Welsh P30 hills was published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website this hill was included in the Hills to be surveyed sub list, as it was considered not to meet the criteria then used for the accompanying main P30 list.

When the sub list was standardised, and interpolated heights and drop values also included the details for this hill were re-evaluated and it was listed with an estimated c 27m of drop based on the 330m summit spot height and an estimated c 303m bwlch height, with the latter based on interpolation of 10m contouring between 300m – 310m that appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map.

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

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 for Hafod Llŷn

LIDAR bwlch image for Hafod Llŷn

The result produced by LIDAR analysis gives this hill a 330.7m summit height, and as the summit has now been surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 it is this result that is being prioritised for listing purposes.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Hafod Llŷn

Therefore, the reclassification of this hill from Sub-Trichant status is due to LIDAR analysis and a subsequent Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey, resulting in a 330.6m summit height and a 300.0m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 30.6m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a Trichant.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Hafod Ithel

Name:  Hafod Llŷn

OS 1:50,000 map:  135

Summit Height:  330.6m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 62592 70023 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Bwlch Height:  300.0m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 62234 69672 & SN 62235 69675 (LIDAR)

Drop:  30.6m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

Myrddyn Phillips (September 2020)

Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales – Deweys

Kirkby Fell (SD 873 635) – Dewey addition

This is one in a series of retrospective Hill Reclassification posts that detail hills whose status has altered in the listing of the Deweys and where I have had direct association with the status change.  These posts will tie in with a forthcoming Change Register giving detail to this list and its alterations since publication in the Mountain tables book.

LIDAR image of Kirkby Fell (SD 873 635)

The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales are affectionately known after their hill list compiler; Michael Dewey.  This list mixes metric and imperial height in its criteria to bookend up to the 2000ft height band and takes in all hills in England, Isle of Man and Wales that are 500m and above and below 2000ft (609.6m) in height that have 30m minimum drop.

This list formed one of a number of lists that appeared in the Mountain tables book published by Constable in 1995 and at the time of publication comprised 373 hills with 164 in England, 5 in the Isle of Man and 204 in Wales.  The Deweys have undergone extensive revision since first publication with the initial stages forming the basis of this revision given below:

1995    Mountain tables published by Constable with 373 hills listed as Deweys.

April 2000    Strider (LDWA quarterly booklet) publishes contact details for David Purchase and Myrddyn Phillips who have found and list 24 and 14 possible new 500m tops respectively.

It was expanded versions of the above two lists that formed the basis of the next publication:

25^th May 2000    List of Possible 500 Metre Tops by Michael Dewey listing 44 hills.

David Purchase expands his Additional Dewey 500m Hills and Myrddyn Phillips produces lists of English 500m hills to measure and Welsh 500m hills to measure.

These lists formed the basis of the next publication:

29^th June 2000    Possible/Probable 500’s by Michael Dewey listing 77 hills.  Michael adopts following protocol; if one person proposes that a top should qualify as a 500 by personal survey, and is then confirmed by a second person, it should then be promoted to the main list.

April 2002    The 500+ Tops of England and Wales – The ‘New Deweys’ published in the Strider booklet and listing 66 new qualifying hills.

25^th May 2006    Rob Woodall republishes Michael’s main and possible/probable lists on the RHB Yahoo group file database. 

 

Mountain tables by Michael Dewey

The details for this addition appear below:

The name the hill is listed by in the Deweys is Kirkby Fell, and it is adjoined to the Ingleborough group of hills which are situated in the Yorkshire Dales in England, and it is encircled by minor roads with the A65 further afield to its west, and has the town of Settle towards the west.

This hill was not included in the original 1995 Constable publication, but with a 546m summit spot height and col contouring between 510m – 520m that appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map, the interpolated drop value was estimated sufficient for this hill to be a potential new Dewey.  The above detail was noted by Myrddyn Phillips, but the hill at this stage was not elevated to the ranks of Deweys.

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

As the interpolated drop value of this hill was close to the minimum qualifying mark of 30m it was prioritised for a GNSS survey, and this took place on the 10^th April 2011.  The summit and col of this hill were surveyed by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips using a Leica 530, with assistance from Brent Lynam and Mark Trengove, resulting in a 546.45m summit height and a 515.3m col height, with these values giving this hill 31.15m of drop, and once the list author; Michael Dewey, was informed it was added to his list.

The summit of Kirkby Fell

With the advent of LIDAR the details for this hill have been 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 col image for Kirkby Fell

The summit and col height for this hill were subsequently ascertained from LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 546.35m summit height and a 515.4m col height, with the latter positioned at SD 87193 63756, which is 54 metres from where the col position was documented during the Leica 530 survey.  However, the LIDAR result does not change this hill’s Dewey status as the drop value comes to 30.9m.

 

The full details for the hill are:

Name:  Kirkby Fell

OS 1:50,000 map:  98

OS 1:25,000 map:  2, 41

Summit Height:  546.45m (converted to OSGM15, Leica 530)

Summit Grid Reference:  SD 87381 63531 (hand-held GPS during survey)

Col Height:  515.3m (converted to OSGM15, Leica 530)

Col Grid Reference:  SN 97191 63810 (Leica 530)

Drop:  31.15m (Leica 530)

Myrddyn Phillips (September 2020)

Grough Article - Ups and Downs - The Story of Handbook of the Scottish Hills

Grough Article

The Grough website recently published an article on the publication of Eric Yeman’s book; Ups and Downs – The Story of Handbook of the Scottish Hills.  The original article and a link to it on the Grough website appear below.

Ups and Downs – The Story of Handbook of the Scottish Hills

Myrddyn Phillips, Guest contributor
Thursday 18 June 2020 09:19 AM GMT

Some people like to ascend hills because they’re there; or because the view from the top is fantastic, perhaps.

Others take a more mathematical approach to their hillwalking, attaching an importance to the mountain’s vital statistics.

Myrddyn Phillips probably has a foot in both camps, but the boot is maybe a little more firmly planted in the latter. He has surveyed or helped to survey numerous British peaks, determining their height and for which list this qualifies them.

In this piece, he details a pioneer of the hill-list publication, and a new book, telling the tale of how Dr Eric Yeaman came to write the ground breaking tome that details 2,435 Scottish hills, 31 years ago.

An Teallach from Beinn a'Chlaidhemh

The publication of the Ups and Downs – The Story of Handbook of the Scottish Hills is a 31-year journey in the making, as this book is a sister volume to the Handbook of the Scottish Hills that was published by Wafaida in 1989.

Although sister volumes, the two books are very different; the 1989 publication revolutionised how hills are categorised, while the Ups and Downs – The Story of Handbook of the Scottish Hills concentrates on the former publication and details how the book and its contents materialised.

Before exploring the Ups and Downs it is probably best to give some detail relating to the Handbook, after all the 1989 publication turned how a hill is categorised on its proverbial head.

Handbook of the Scottish Hills was published in 1989, but its conception started as early as 1980 when its author Dr E J Yeaman returned from a hillwalking trip to some of his favourite hills: Deuchary Hill, behind Dunkeld, and Clachnaben, above the Cairn o’ Mount. These are not high hills and upon returning home he wondered if a list to lower hills in Scotland existed and found that one did not.

It was soon after that he decided to rectify this and compile a list of his own, but what should constitute a hill?

At the time that Dr Yeaman decided to compile a list of the Scottish hills the Ordnance Survey had just updated their mapping from the one-inch series to the 1:50,000 Landranger series, and the use of these new metric maps suggested that a separate hill could be classified by using a drop criterion of 100m all round.

Eric Yeaman.  Photo: Eric Yeaman

But what about those hills that were separate in distance but not in drop? To include such hills Yeaman added an auxiliary criterion: a summit would also qualify as a hill if it was at least 5km walking distance from any higher point.

The combination of these ‘rules’ gives a unique listing of hills, but the use of the 100m drop criterion literally uprooted everything that came before and led the world of hill classification on a different path entirely. However, as with most things that revolutionise a medium, when the Handbook was published it received little fanfare, and it is only with hindsight that its importance is recognised.

The reason why the Handbook was revolutionary is simple. Before its publication the standard way to classify a hill was by using a minimum height and a minimum drop. These two mainstays of criteria had been used in countless listings over many years, and some examples pre- and post-Handbook that use these criteria are given below:

Corbetts – Scottish hills, 2,500ft minimum height with 500ft minimum drop, with upper height band below 3,000ft.

Hewitts – English and Welsh hills, 2,000ft minimum height with 30m minimum drop.

Nuttalls – English and Welsh hills, 2,000ft minimum height with 15m minimum drop.

By using minimum height and drop a hill list compiler creates a simple way to separate one hill from another. This differentiation works extremely well and is empathised by the popularity of many of its proponents. However, what happens if these two mainstays of criteria are scrapped and are replaced by one criterion? Prior to Yeaman no-one had thought about this let alone attempted to classify hills by such a method.

Although employing the auxiliary criterion of distance, the main criterion of 100m drop turned the world of hill classification upside down, as it meant that there were no bounds except for one, and the one specified could be anything. In this instance it was 100m, but other hill-list authors soon followed with their own take on what has now become known as ‘relative height’.

Dr Yeaman’s Handbook was the first publication to prioritise relative over absolute height.

These two definitions are:

Relative height is applied to hills whose qualification is just dependent upon a minimum drop.

Absolute height is applied to hills whose qualification is dependent upon a minimum height and a minimum drop.

The difference is simple but it has revolutionised the world of hill classification. As with many listings of hills the use of the same or slightly different criteria from one hill list compiler to another gives an evolving feel to many lists.

The original 1989 book

It is no different with Dr Yeaman’s use of relative height as this evolving process has manifested itself with listings that employ this method of classification. Such examples are given below:

Marilyns – British hills with 150m of relative height compiled by Alan Dawson

Humps – British hills with 100m of relative height collated by Mark Jackson

Tumps – British hills with 30m relative height collated by Mark Jackson

Twmpau – Welsh hills with 30m relative height compiled by Myrddyn Phillips.

Although the Handbook of the Scottish Hills was appreciated by some people when it was first published, its significance is only now being fully understood and the publication of the Ups and Downs – The Story of Handbook of the Scottish Hills is a timely reminder of what the Handbook has achieved since its publication.

The Ups and Downs explores the conception of the Handbook and leads the reader through many aspects relating to it; this is no ordinary book as it employs a detailed analysis in its method, which is to be expected from a list author who delved into great detail within the Handbook.

One of the fundamental things with any book is that the purchaser has in hand the end product, the months of labour to create it is not on direct show, and in the case of a hill-list author these months of labour consists of meticulous map study and refinement of one’s list, and one of the joys of the Ups and Downs is that it explains this process and gives details to how it evolved for the Handbook.

However, the Ups and Downs goes beyond the rigours of hill list compilation and has chapters giving details on how to approach commercial publishers, and how to self-publish and market and deal with bookshops.

The Ups and Downs is an exploration beyond the Handbook, but stemming directly from it. It includes correspondence that the author received, with much of this detailing that from the late E D ‘Clem’ Clements, the author of the TACit Tables publication The Hewitts and Marilyns of Ireland.

It was a tentative suggestion from Eric and Clem that they should use the same criteria employed in the Handbook and list the qualifying hills for England and Wales, although a co-authored book did not materialise, Clem did compile such a list and the hills therein became affectionately known as the ‘Clem Yeamans’ in honour of the list compiler and the person who invented the criteria used.

It is fitting that the 2,490 Scottish hills listed in the Handbook and its later updates are now known as the ‘Yeamans’ after Dr E J Yeaman; the first person to use what is now commonly known as relative height, and the author of Handbook of the Scottish Hills and its sister volume; Ups and Downs – The Story of Handbook of the Scottish Hills.

The author; Eric Yeaman resides in Arbroath, on the east coast of Scotland. He enjoyed bagging hills until an arthritic knee made beach walking a more attractive option. He has produced a number of books including the Handbook of the Scottish Hills and the Ups and Downs – The Story of Handbook of the Scottish Hills.

Ups and Downs – The Story of Handbook of the Scottish Hills is available as an e-book from Mapping Mountains Publications and Smashwords.

For the original article published on the Grough website