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

Lan Ddu Cilwenau (SN 572 371) 

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales 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 detail on contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data and LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Lan Ddu Cilwenau (SN 572 371)

The criteria for the two listings 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

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 the list 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 Pencarreg group of hills, which are situated in the south-western part of South Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B1), and it is positioned with the B4337 road to its north-east, a minor road to its south-west and the B4310 road to its south-east, and has the village of Llansawel towards the east south-east.

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the directional name of Lan Ddu Cilwenau West Top, with an accompanying note stating; Name from hill to the East.

Lan Ddu Cilwenau West Top

328m

SN576371

146

186

Clem/Yeaman. Name from hill to the 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 or as in this instance use a directional name based on supplanting the name of a near hill and adding a directional component to it.  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

As the summit of this hill comprises bounded land the details for it were examined on the Tithe map.  The term Tithe map is generally given to a map of a Welsh or English parish or township and which was prepared after the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act.  This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods.  The Tithe maps gave names of owners and occupiers of land in each parish and importantly for place-name research they also included the name of enclosed land.  This enclosed land is usually based on a field system, however not every field is given a name, but many are and especially so in Wales.

The website hosting the Welsh Tithe maps also hosts historical and contemporary Ordnance Survey and satellite maps and it is one of the historic Ordnance Survey One-Inch maps that positions the name of Lan Ddu Cilwenau taking in this land incorporating this hill. 

Extract from a historical Ordnance Survey One-Inch map available on the website hosting the Welsh Tithe maps

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales is Lan Ddu Cilwenau and this was derived from a historic Ordnance Survey One-Inch map available on the website hosting the Welsh Tithe maps. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Mynydd Pencarreg 

Name:  Lan Ddu Cilwenau 

Previously Listed Name:  Lan Ddu Cilwenau West Top 

OS 1:50,000 map:  146 

Summit Height:  333.1m (LIDAR) 

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 57277 37147 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  c 211m (interpolation) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 56467 37617 (interpolation) 

Drop:  c 122m (LIDAR summit and interpolated bwlch) 

Dominance:  36.66% (LIDAR summit and interpolated bwlch) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (May 2022)