Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales

 

Ffridd Esgair Weddan (SH 682 018) – Sub-Trichant reclassified to Trichant

There has been confirmation of a reclassification to the list of 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 reclassification 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 name the hill is listed by is Ffridd Esgair Weddan and it is adjoined to the Tarren y Gesail group of hills, which are situated in the south-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned with the B4405 road to its north-west, the A493 road to its south and the A487 road to its east north-east, and has the town of Machynlleth towards the east. 

When the original 300m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill was included in the Hills to be surveyed sub list, as it was considered not to meet the criteria then used for the main P30 category. 

When 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 an estimated c 32m of drop, based on the 326m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and an estimated c 294m bwlch height, based on interpolation of 10m contouring between 290m – 300m. 

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 there have been a number of 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 were digitally updated such as the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local that was hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the interactive mapping on the Magic Maps and WalkLakes websites. 

One of the resources recently available online is the mapping on the OS Maps website and the details for this hill were subsequently re-assessed against this mapping.  This is the replacement for OS Get-a-map and until recent times had contours at 5m intervals which were proving consistently more accurate compared to the 5m contours that sometimes appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and used to appear on the online Vector Map Local.  This mapping had bwlch contouring between 290m – 295m, with interpolation placing the height of the bwlch as an estimated c 293m, resulting in the drop value for this hill being amended to an estimated c 33m. 

Therefore, the reclassification of this hill from Sub-Trichant status is due to detail on contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data, resulting in a 326m summit height and an estimated c 293m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill an estimated c 33m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a Trichant. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Tarren y Gesail 

Name:  Ffridd Esgair Weddan 

OS 1:50,000 map:  135

Summit Height:  326m (spot height)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 68242 01847 (hand-held GPS via DoBIH) 

Bwlch Height:  c 293m (interpolation) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 68185 02014 (interpolation) 

Drop:  c 33m (spot height summit and interpolated bwlch) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (March 2022)