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

Fforest Crychan (SN 848 405) 

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 LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Fforest Crychan (SN 848 405)

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 Mynydd Epynt group of hills, which are situated in the central part of South Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B1), and it is positioned with a minor road to its north-east and the A483 road to its north-west, and has the town of Llanwrtyd towards the north north-east.

The hill appeared in the original 300m height band of Welsh P30 hills published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the transposed name of Brynffo, with an accompanying note stating; Name from farm to the East.

Brynffo

340c

SN847407

147/160

187

Name from farm 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 transpose a name of a farm and use it for that of the hill.  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 used to comprise 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. 

Extract from the Tithe map

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 1019 on the Tithe map, this can be cross referenced against the apportionments; it is these apportionments that give the name of the owner or occupier of the land as well as the name of the land.  The land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as a part of the Sheepwalk associated with the farm of Cwm Crychan in the apportionments; this farm is positioned to the south-west of the summit, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llanfair-ar-y-bryn and in the county named as Carmarthenshire. 

Extract from the apportionments

At the time of the Tithe this was an open hill with the land forming a part of the sheepwalk of Cwm Crychan farm.  This would be a part of the grazing land adjoined to this farm and would usually be considered the mountain (mynydd) land of the farm named Cwm Crychan and therefore would appear as Mynydd Cwm Crychan.  However, this land is no longer open and used for grazing, as it has been planted in conifers and now forms a part of Fforest Crychan.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Fforest Crychan and this was derived from the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map with the Tithe map consulted for previous land use. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Mynydd Epynt 

Name:  Fforest Crychan 

Previously Listed Name:  Brynffo 

OS 1:50,000 map:  147, 160

Summit Height:  348.9m (LIDAR)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 84822 40507 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  309.3m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 85385 41112 & SN 85384 41110 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  39.6m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (February 2024)