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

Llanfilo Camp (SO 113 327) 

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 Llanfilo Camp (SO 113 327)

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 encircled by minor roads, with the A38 road farther to its north and the B4560 road farther to its east, and has the town of Talgarth towards the east 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 invented name of Pen-y-gaer, with an accompanying note stating; Name from ancient hill fort at summit.

Pen-y-gaer

310m

SO113327

161

13

Trig pillar. Name from ancient hill fort at summit

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 name that is in common usage for such ancient monuments, without confirmation of its actual use.  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

Since the original publication of the Welsh P30 lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website there have been a number of resources made available online.  One of these is Coflein; the online database for the National Monuments Record of Wales, which constitutes the national collection about the historic environment of Wales.  Coflein documents detail associated with ancient structures, including hill forts, and for this hill and its listed name it is Coflein that use the name of Llanfilo Camp.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Llanfilo Camp and this was derived from detail supplied by Coflein. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Mynydd Epynt 

Name:  Llanfilo Camp 

Previously Listed Name:  Pen-y-gaer 

OS 1:50,000 map:  161

Summit Height:  310.4m (LIDAR)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 11352 32709 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  223.6m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 09879 31998 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  86.8m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (April 2024)