Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – 30-99m Twmpau

 

Foel Fawr (SH 357 919) – 30-99m Sub-Twmpau addition

There has been confirmation of an addition to the list of 30-99m Twmpau, 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 Fawr (SH 357 919)

The criteria for the list that this addition applies to are: 

30-99m Twmpau – Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 30-99m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward. 

The 30-99m Twmpau by Myrddyn Phillips

The name the hill is listed by is Foel Fawr and it is adjoined to the Ynys Môn group of hills, which are situated in the north-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and it is positioned with the coast to its north, minor roads to its north, south and east and the A5025 road to its west, and has the village of Cemaes towards the north-east. 

When the original 30-99m 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. 

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

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 23m of drop based on the 49m 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 which now appears on the interactive mapping available on the Magic Maps website, and the 26m bwlch spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

Extract from the Magic Maps website

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 of Foel Fawr

Therefore, the confirmation of the addition of this hill to 30-99m Sub-Twmpau status is due to LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 48.9m summit height and a 28.25m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 20.6m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a 30-99m Sub-Twmpau. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Ynys Môn 

Name:  Foel Fawr 

OS 1:50,000 map:  114

Summit Height:  48.9m (LIDAR) 

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 35728 91981 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  28.25m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 35963 91346 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  20.6m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (July 2021)