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

Foel Felen (SH 760 527) – 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 Foel Felen (SH 760 527)

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 Foel Felen and it is adjoined to the Arenig group of hills, which are situated in the central part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned with the A470 road to its north and west, the A5 road to its east north-east and the B4406 road to its east, and has the village of Betws-y-coed towards the north-east. 

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

After 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 25m of drop based on the 368m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map and an estimated c 343m bwlch height based on interpolation of 10m contouring between 340m – 350m.  With the interpolated bwlch height favoured over that of a 341m spot height that was not centred and considered too low on the valley to valley traverse. 

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 368.4m summit height and a 341.0m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 27.4m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a Sub-Trichant. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Arenig 

Name:  Foel Felen 

OS 1:50,000 map:  115

Summit Height:  368.4m (LIDAR)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 76001 52763 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  341.0m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 76123 52535 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  27.4m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (May 2021)