The year started as the previous had ended, with lock down restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These were imposed in Wales on Saturday the 19th December 2020 and were lifted on Saturday 27th March 2021. When the restrictions were lifted the pandemic had resulted in over 126,000 deaths in the UK. The restrictions also meant that exercise could only be taken locally from one’s own doorstep. However, life as a blogger continued and the restrictions gave opportunity to focus attention on projects that had been put to one side for a number of years. These concentrated my mind for the first three months of the year and afterward hills farther afield and surveying with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 became the norm again. So let’s take a look at the Mapping Mountains year in review:
January:
During the first lock down in March, April and May 2020 a bi-product of the resulting restrictions meant that I reacquainted myself with my local landscape; exploring footpaths and country lanes that I had not visited since childhood. The regulations regarding exercise were slightly different during the lock down at the start of 2021, with the timeframe for exercise now unlimited. This enabled longer walks using Yr Allt and Y Golfa as the go-to hills, with the latter becoming the hill of choice, using it in combination with other near P30s for good extended circular walks.
February:
Thankfully motivation has never been difficult for me, and over the years I’ve set myself a number of long-term goals, some resulting in literally years of work to gain the end result. One of these was the compilation of The Welsh P15s which took around eight years to complete. The completion of The Welsh P15s in May 2019 produced a massive list of hills all now documented and awaiting detailed analysis. The first group I had listed was Ynys Môn and associated islands, because of its terrain this also proved the most difficult group to compile. The lock down restrictions at the start of the year gave opportunity to use available LIDAR to examine all qualifying hills to this group; over 200 hills in all. I completed this task on the 18th February and the P15s of Ynys Môn were published later in the year.
March:
On the 1st March (St David’s Day) The Huws – 100 great Welsh hills under 2,000ft were published on the Haroldstreet website for GPS waypoints and an online tick list and on Mapping Mountains to download in Google Doc format. The list was instigated by Alex Cameron and inspired by Andrew Dempster’s book to Scottish hills under 2,000ft. Alex invited me to contribute toward this list in August last year when we met to repaint the trig pillar atop Corndon. The team quickly expanded with Mark Trengove, Rob Woodall, Adrian Rayner and John Gillham all joining. This list proved an ideal project during lock down and we held weekly Zoom meetings for a number of weeks to discuss the merits of the hills we had each put forward as our best in Wales below 2,000ft in height. The resulting list of 100 hills will take you on an adventure the length and breadth of Wales with variety aplenty. It proved an extremely fulfilling project to be involved in with the combination of working as a team and discussing hills paramount.
March:
During March the Mapping Mountains site started to post two articles per day. This was instigated from the winter lockdown updates due to LIDAR analysis in the Ynys Môn group of hills in The Welsh P15s. LIDAR analysis to this one group alone resulted in 240 major alterations. As I wanted to document these I decided to double up with articles on Mapping Mountains with the first posted at 7.00am and the second relating to these alterations posted at 7.00pm per day. This entailed a tremendous amount of work with a schedule that when planned, I did not think I would be able to fulfil.
March:
On the 13th of the month the Stay at Home instruction in Wales due to Covid-19 altered to Stay Local, giving a five mile radius of travel for exercise. This enabled many more hills to be visited and surveyed. However, this only lasted two weeks and on the 27th of the month the Stay Local restriction ended, therefore travel throughout Wales was now legal once more.
April:
When I purchased the Trimble GeoXH 6000 I wondered how many hills I would survey with it. I set myself a goal of surveying 1,000 P30s mainly concentrating on Welsh hills. During April of this year I surveyed the 700th P30 with the Trimble. The restrictions imposed due to Covid-19 had limited the Trimble’s use for many months, but that initial target of 1,000 P30s is getting ever nearer.
May:
With Mapping Mountains now posting two articles per day and with the second of these concentrating on the updates to the Ynys Môn group of hills in The Welsh P15s, it was now time for this group of hills to be published, and this took place on the 10th of the month with publication on the Haroldstreet website as an online tick list and for GPS Waypoints and on Mapping Mountains to download in Google Doc format.
May:
One of the most important and outstanding surveys of a Welsh hill took place during this month. Bache Hill is situated in the Fforest Glud range of hills and had been prioritised for an accurate survey for many years and the opportunity to conduct this with Aled Williams materialised on the 27th of the month. The survey concentrated on the ancient tumulus on the hill’s summit plateau, ground at its base and natural ground to its west. The survey confirmed the tumulus to be the high point of the hill and that its natural summit is intact and positioned approximately 100 metres to the west of the tumulus and that the natural summit is over 609.6m (2,000ft) in height.
June:
The survey result of Bache Hill was announced on the 1st June with articles appearing on Mapping Mountains and UKHillwalking. During 2021 the UKHillwalking website published a number of articles covering the publication of The Huws, the survey of Bache Hill, the discovery of a new Marilyn and the new concept of National Tops. The latter two are detailed below.
August:
On the 24th August I surveyed Rhinog Fach, which was long overdue but definitely worth waiting for. This hill is situated in the Rhinogydd; a group of rugged hills overlooking the western coast of Wales. Shortly after purchasing the Trimble GeoXH 6000 I promised Alan Dawson; the author of the Marilyns that I would endeavour to survey this hill for Marilyn status. It only took me a further eight years to fulfil the promise! The survey gave Rhinog Fach 151.0m of drop and upon Alan’s acceptance of the result this hill was reclassified to Marilyn status. Rhinog Fach is the first new Marilyn for three years, and the first new Welsh Marilyn for eight years.
September:
The partnership formed with Aled Williams with the listings we co-author has proven beneficial in many aspects. One being that our views relating to upland Welsh place-name research are similar. However, there have been many benefits relating to the numerical aspect of our lists. Not all numerical benefits are related to the surveys conducted with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 or through LIDAR analysis, some are related to the rules governing hill qualification and during September we announced the new concept of National Tops, with an article appearing on Mapping Mountains and on the UKHillwalking website.
October:
Leading up to October Guto Huws from the BBC had contacted me on two occasions. Guto wanted to run a piece on Welsh hills, their classifications and surveying them with the Trimble GeoXH 6000. With the survey result of Rhinog Fach and the new concept of Nation Tops just announced the timing was perfect and the resulting article was published on the BBC Cymru Fyw website.
November:
I’ve always enjoyed symmetry and what better way to lead toward the end of the year than to revisit what we compiled at the start of the year in the winter lock down; The Huws – 100 great Welsh hills under 2,000ft. We were invited to give a Zoom talk on this list and its compilation by the Relative Hills Society (RHSoc) and it proved a very enjoyable evening.
Year’s End:
During 2021 another grand sweep for the year was achieved, as a separate post has been uploaded to Mapping Mountains on each and every day of the year. With over 240 days when two articles appeared per day. This has been the most prolific year for posts since the launch of the site in late 2013.
The Year Ahead:
And what is in store for Mapping Mountains during 2022; over the forthcoming year the site will continue reporting on alterations to major listings mainly concentrating on Welsh hills. These are instigated from surveys with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 and through LIDAR analysis. Both are time consuming, but are immensely rewarding. My main aim for 2022 is for the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales. All major updates to this list continue to be reported on Mapping Mountains, but the list in its entirety has not been published since the early 2000’s. My aim is to publish a revised and fully updated list to this category of hill starting this evening at 7.00pm with the first Group of hills to Carnedd Llywelyn. Subsequent groups of hills will be published on the 15th and 1st of each month. The publication of this list will follow the revised Topographical Regions, Sub-Regions and Groups and an article relating to this will be published on the 2nd January.
Lastly, I thank those who visit Mapping Mountains for their continued support and I hope the year ahead brings lots of happiness and fun-filled days on the hill. But above all; stay safe and keep care.
Myrddyn Phillips (1st
January 2022)
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