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

Belan Hill (SO 051 901) – Sub-Trichant deletion

There has been a deletion from 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 Belan Hill (SO 051 901)

The criteria for the list that this deletion 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 Belan Hill, and it is adjoined to the Hirddywel group of hills, which are situated in the northern part of South Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with the A489 road to its north and minor roads to its west, south and east, and has the town of Y Drenewydd (Newtown) towards the 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 accompanying Hills to be surveyed sub list, as it was considered not to meet the criteria then used for this sub category.

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 311m summit height and an estimated c 291m bwlch height, with both heights based on interpolation of 5m contouring. 

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.

Therefore, the deletion of this hill from Sub-Trichant status is due to LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 311.4m summit height and a 292.5m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 19.0m of drop, which is insufficient for it to be classified as a Sub-Trichant. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Hirddywel 

Name:  Belan Hill 

OS 1:50,000 map:  136

Summit Height:  311.4m (LIDAR)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 05114 90152 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  292.5m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 05157 90001 & SO 05157 90000 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  19.0m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2024)