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

Hafoty Glan y Bala (SH 587 610) 

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 Hafoty Glan y Bala (SH 587 610)

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 Glyder Fawr group of hills, which are situated in the north-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and it is positioned with minor roads to its north-west and east, the A4086 road to its south-west, and has the village of Llanberis towards the south-west.

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 with a 313m summit spot height on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and with no significant bwlch contours of note it was difficult to know whether any hill of note existed.

Current online Ordnance Survey mapping now shows bwlch contouring between 285m – 290m, and therefore this hill was listed under the point (Pt. 313m) notation with interpolation placing the height of the bwlch at an estimated c 289m and when coupled with the 313m summit spot height, these values gave this hill an estimated c 24m of drop. 

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. 

Extract from the Tithe map

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 198 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 transcribed as Glan y Bala Hafoty in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish named as Llanddeiniolen and in the county named as Caernarfon. 

Extract from the apportionments

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Hafoty Glan y Bala and this was derived from the Tithe map. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Glyder Fawr 

Name:  Hafoty Glan y Bala 

Previously Listed Name:  Pt. 313m 

OS 1:50,000 map:  114, 115

Summit Height:  313.2m (LIDAR)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 58760 61016 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  288.2m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 58906 60906 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  25.0m (LIDAR) 

 

My thanks to Aled Williams for advice relating to the listed name of this hill

Myrddyn Phillips (July 2025)