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

Craig y Fron (SJ 289 570) – Sub-Trichant addition

There has been confirmation of an addition 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 derived from LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Craig y Fron (SJ 289 570)

The criteria for the list that this addition 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 13^th May 2017. 

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

The name the hill is listed by is Craig y Fron, and it is adjoined to the Moel y Gamelin group of hills, which are situated in the north-eastern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A2), and it is encircled by minor roads with the A541 road to its north-east, the A5104 road to its north-west and the B5101 road to its south-west, and has the village of Caergwrle 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 not included in the Hills to be surveyed sub list that accompanied the main P30 list, as it was considered not to meet the criteria then used for this sub category. 

After the P30 lists were standardised, and interpolated heights and drop values also included, this hill was listed with an estimated c 22m of drop based on the 324m summit spot height that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map and an estimated bwlch height of c 302m based on interpolation of contours between 300m – 305m that appear on the Ordnance Survey 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. 

Therefore, the confirmation of the addition of this hill to Sub-Trichant status is due to LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 324.0m summit height and a 300.1m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 23.8m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a Sub-Trichant. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Moel y Gamelin 

Name:  Craig y Fron 

OS 1:50,000 map:  117

Summit Height:  324.0m (LIDAR)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 28971 57067 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  300.1m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 29269 57113 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  23.8m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (January 2021)