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

Mynydd Pen Lan (SH 783 090) 

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 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 detail on contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data. 

The criteria for the list that this name change 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, and the Introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of the list appearing on the 1^st January 2022. 

Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips

The hill is adjoined to the Aran Fawddwy group of hills, which are situated in the south-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned with minor roads to its north and west, the A487 road farther to its west and the A470 road to its east, and has the village of Aberllefenni towards the north-west. 

The hill that was prioritised as the P30 appeared in the original Welsh 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the transposed name of Ffridd Maes-mawr, which is a prominent name that appears near the summit of this hill on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps.

Ffridd Maes-mawr

371m

SH782092

124

23/215

375m on 1984 1:50000 map at GR784091

 

During my early hill listing I paid little regard to name placement on the map, or the meaning of names and to what feature the name was appropriately applied to.  Therefore, I prioritised names for listing purposes that I now understand are either inappropriate or where another name is viewed as being more appropriate, with the previously listed name of Ffridd Maes-mawr applicable to land that does not take in the summit of this hill. 

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

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 1:50,000 Landranger map

Since publication of these P30 lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website there have been a number of Ordnance Survey maps made available online, some of these are historic such as the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the old Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, and the interactive mapping on the Magic Maps and WalkLakes websites, and it is the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps that give the name of Mynydd Pen Lan stretching the length of the ridge taking in this hill, with this name also appearing in a similar position on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map. 

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Mynydd Pen Lan, and this was derived from the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map with the name placement substantiated by the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Aran Fawddwy 

Name:  Mynydd Pen Lan 

Previously Listed Name:  Ffridd Maes-mawr 

OS 1:50,000 map:  124

Summit Height:  375m (spot height)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 78343 09027 (hand-held GPS via DoBIH) 

Bwlch Height:  c 338m (interpolation) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 78157 08694 (interpolation) 

Drop:  c 37m (spot height summit and interpolated bwlch) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (February 2022)