Mapping Mountains – Significant Height Revisions – Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales

Moel y Belan (SJ 013 203) 

There has been a Significant Height Revision 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 LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Moel y Belan (SJ 013 203)

The criteria for the list that this height revision 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 Moel y Belan, and it is adjoined to the Foel Cedig group of hills, which are situated in the southern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned with a minor road to its east and north, and the B4393 road and Llyn Efyrnwy (Lake Vyrnwy) to its south, and has the village of Llanwddyn towards the south-east.

When the original 300m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill was listed with a 359m summit height based on the spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

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

However, it was not until LIDAR became available that the details for this hill could be accurately re-assessed.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales. 

LIDAR summit image of Moel y Belan (SJ 013 203)

LIDAR analysis gives the summit height of this hill as 345.6m and this comes within the parameters of the Significant Height Revisions used within this page heading, these parameters are:

The term Significant Height Revisions applies to any listed hill whose interpolated summit height and Ordnance Survey or Harvey map summit spot height, has a 2m or more discrepancy when compared to the survey result produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000 or analysis of data produced via LIDAR.  Also included are hills whose summit map data is missing an uppermost ring contour when compared to the data produced by the Trimble or by LIDAR analysis.

As the LIDAR result for this hill was so different to the Ordnance Survey spot height that appears on the 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map, the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps were consulted, and the imperial height of 1134ft (345.6m) appears for this hill on this mapping.  It was also noted that a summit spot height of 345m appears on the interactive mapping available on the Magic Maps website. 

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

Therefore, the new listed summit height of this hill is 345.6m and this was derived from LIDAR analysis, this is 13.4m lower than the previously listed summit height of 359m which appears as a spot height on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Foel Cedig 

Name:  Moel y Belan 

OS 1:50,000 map:  125

Summit Height (New Height):  345.6m (LIDAR)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 01350 20335 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  309.45m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 01118 20667 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  36.2m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (May 2022)