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

Pt. 329.7m (SN 591 630) – Sub-Trichant addition

There has been confirmation an addition 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 LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Pt. 329.7m (SN 591 630)

The criteria for the list that this addition 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 being listed by the point (Pt. 329.7m) notation and it is adjoined to the Mynydd Bach group of hills, which are situated in the western part of South Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B1), and it is positioned with the B4576 road to its north-west, B4577 road to its south and a minor road to its east, and has the village of Llangeitho 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 not included in the Hills to be surveyed sub list, as it was considered not to meet the criteria then used for this sub category. 

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

After 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 20m of drop, based on an estimated c 327m summit height and an estimated c 307m bwlch height, with both heights based on interpolation of 5m contouring that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage 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 mapping resources now available online is on the Magic Maps website which hosts an interactive map originated from Ordnance Survey data.  Until recently this mapping had many spot heights not on other publicly available maps and for this hill it had a 327m spot height on the summit area of this hill, resulting in its details being amended accordingly. 

Extract from the interactive mapping hosted on the Magic Maps website

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.

Another of the resources now available online is the WalkLakes website which hosts an interactive map originated from the Ordnance Survey Open Data programme.  This map has many spot heights not on other publicly available maps and its 330m spot height matches the rounded up summit height that LIDAR gives this hill. 

Extract from the interactive mapping hosted on the WalkLakes website

Another resource now available online is the interactive mapping hosted on the Welsh Government website and entitled the DataMapWales.  This mapping has 5m contours and its detail matches that produced from the OS Terrain 5 product, which compliments much of that produced from LIDAR.  This map also has a 330m spot height which matches the rounded up figure produced by LIDAR. 

Extract from the DataMapWales

Therefore, the confirmation of the addition of this hill to Sub-Trichant status is due to LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 329.7m summit height and a 306.9m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 22.8m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a Sub-Trichant. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Mynydd Bach 

Name:  Pt. 329.7m 

OS 1:50,000 map:  146

Summit Height:  329.7m (LIDAR)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 59108 63024 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  306.9m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 59361 63409 & SN 59359 63413 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  22.8m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2023)