Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales

Y Fenni Fach (SO 014 294) 

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop, dominance and status of the hill derived from LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Y Fenni Fach (SO 014 294)

The criteria for the two listings that this name change applies to are: 

200m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m in height with 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 200m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m 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 200m Twmpau by Myrddyn Phillips

Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales – Welsh P30 hills whose prominence equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  With the criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those additional Welsh P30 hills whose prominence is between one third and half that of their absolute height.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the start of the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 3^rd December 2015, and which is now available in its entirety on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format. 

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips

The hill is adjoined to the Mynydd Epynt group of hills, which are situated in the central part of South Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B1), and it is positioned with minor roads to its north-east and north-west, and the A40 road to its south, and has the town of Aberhonddu (Brecon) towards the east. 

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 200m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the invented and transposed name of Moel Fenni-fach, with an accompanying note stating; Name from farm to the South-East.

Moel Fenni-fach

290c

SO015295

160

12

Clem/Yeaman. Name from farm to the South-East.

 

During my early hill listing I thought it appropriate to either invent a name for a hill, or use a name that appeared near to the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey maps of the day.  My preference was to use farm names and put Pen, Bryn or Moel in front of them.  This is not a practice that I now advocate as with time and inclination place-name data can be improved either by asking local people or by examining historic documents, through this form of research an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found. 

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

Since the original publication of the Welsh P30 lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website a number of place-name books have been accessed to either find or substantiate locally known and/or historic names for hills.  One of the books accessed is A Study of Breconshire Place-Names, published in 1999 by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch and researched and written by Richard Morgan and R. F. Peter Powell.  It is this book that documents the name of Y Fenni Fach, referencing the name applied to the hill in 1832. 

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 200m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales is Y Fenni Fach and this was derived from A Study of Breconshire Place-Names by Richard Morgan and R. F. Peter Powell. 

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Epynt

Name:  Y Fenni Fach

Previously Listed Name:  Moel Fenni-fach   

OS 1:50,000 map:  160

Summit Height:  290.9m (LIDAR) 

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 01449 29465 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  179.9m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 01471 30353 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  111.0m (LIDAR) 

Dominance:  38.16% (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (February 2022)