Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales and Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales

Cnepyn Cerrig (SN 706 460) 

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales and 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 a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams. 

Cnepyn Cerrig (SN 706 460)

The criteria for the two listings that this name change 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 listed in the 390m Sub-Pedwar category.  The criteria for 390m Sub-Pedwar status being all Welsh hills at or above 390m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum 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

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 hill is adjoined to the Elenydd group of hills, which are situated in the central part of the Mid and West Wales Region (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with minor roads to its west and south-east, and the A482 road farther to its south-west, and has the small community of Cwrtycadno towards the south-west. 

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 400m P30 list published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Cefn Branddu, which is a prominent name that appears to the north-east of this hill’s summit on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map.  This is also the name the hill was listed by in the 1^st edition of the Y Pedwarau published by Europeaklist in May 2013.

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

Prior to visiting this hill I contacted Irwel Jones; the farmer from Aber Branddu (SN 708 455) to ask permission to park at his farm and use the track leading north-westward from it to visit this hill, during the conversation Irwel named this hill as Cnepyn Cerrig, with its summit named as Pen Cerrig. 

After visiting this hill we descended to Aber Branddu and met Irwel and his father; Eirwyn.  With the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map opened on the roof of my car and the hill directly above us, Aled proceeded to ask questions about this hill and others where Irwel grazes sheep on.  Many upland place-names proceeded to be given, including that of Cnepyn Cerrig for this hill. 

Irwel and Eirwyn Jones

Once back home Aled scrutinised a number of old maps and with the information given by Eirwyn and Irwel he detailed a timeline including that of field boundaries and the history of what land the name of Cefn Branddu applied to.  With the field boundaries confirming that Cefn Branddu applies to the entire mountain, including that of the higher adjacent hill positioned at SN 699 452,  Aled’s conclusion was to use the prioritised name that both Irwel and his father; Eirwyn gave us for this hill, and that is Cnepyn Cerrig. 

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales and Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Cnepyn Cerrig, and this was derived from local enquiry. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Elenydd 

Name:  Cnepyn Cerrig 

Previously Listed Name:  Cefn Branddu 

OS 1:50,000 map:  146, 147 

Summit Height:  399.3m (converted to OSGM15) 

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 70687 46081 

Bwlch Height:  353.6m (converted to OSGM15) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 70185 46118 

Drop:  45.7m 

 

Aled Williams and Myrddyn Phillips (November 2021)