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

Pen y Clun (SN 926 874)

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 a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey and latterly LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

Pen y Clun (SN 926 874)

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.

Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips

The hill is adjoined to the Pumlumon group of hills, which are situated in the north-western part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with minor roads to its east and north, and the B4518 road to its south-west, and has the town of Llanidloes towards the south-east.

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the invented name of Pen-y-gaer, with an accompanying note stating; Name from ancient fort at summit.

Pen-y-gaer

382m

SN926875

136

214

Name from ancient fort at summit.

During my early hill listing I thought it appropriate to either invent a name for a hill, or use a name that appeared near to the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey maps of the day.  My preference was to use farm names and put Pen, Bryn or Moel in front of them or as in this instance use the generic term often used in Welsh for an ancient hill fort.  This is not a practice that I now advocate as with time and inclination place-name data can be improved either by asking local people or by examining historic documents, through this form of research an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found.

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

Since publication of these P30 lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website there have been a number of Ordnance Survey maps made available online, some of these are historic such as the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the old Vector Map Local that used to be hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, and it is the series of Six-Inch maps that name the land taking in the summit of this hill as Pen y Clun.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

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 829 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 a sheepwalk adjoined to the farm of Pen y Clun, and this substantiates the information given on the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Pen y Clun, and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps with the area of land known by this name confirmed by the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Pumlumon

Name:  Pen y Clun

Previously Listed Name:  Pen-y-gaer

OS 1:50,000 map:  136

Summit Height:  381.7m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 92639 87499 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Bwlch Height:  350.2m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 92437 87531 (LIDAR)

Drop:  31.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For details of the Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey of this hill

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2020)