About Me

I am the webmaster of Mapping Mountains; which started in November 2013 documenting numerical data and place-name information for hills.  Over the intervening years the site has evolved, and it now also includes articles written by myself and others, hill lists and details for hill reclassification, summit relocation, height revision and name changes. 

Below is a brief synopsis about me and my association with the hills: 

 

Hill Walking and Trekking: 

I have over 35 years of hill walking experience from scaling North Africa’s highest mountain to trekking in Nepal and Peru. 

I have completed the Welsh 3,000ft challenge in less than 24 hours, the three peaks challenge; Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Yr Wyddfa in under 24 hours, 16 rounds of the Welsh 2,000ft mountains, including an ascent of each hill in each month of the year, still the only known Monthly Calendar Round of hills ever achieved in the British Isles.  I am the first known person to complete the Welsh Highlands – Uchafion Cymru; these are the 630 Welsh hills at and above 500m in height with 15m minimum drop and one of the first people to complete the Welsh Deweys and have visited over 1,000 Welsh P30s and completed the English 2,000ft mountains.

 

Surveying: 

I have surveyed over 420 hills in Wales using a basic levelling technique and spent nine years as a member of G&J Surveys, with the team operating Leica differential GNSS equipment, and have now surveyed over 700 P30s using a Trimble GeoXH 6000 for the absolute height and drop of these hills. 

The instigation of these surveys have resulted in many reclassifications, including; Sgurr nan Ceannaichean and Beinn a’ Chlaidheimh reclassified from Munro to Corbett status,  Knight’s Peak being deleted from the Munro Tops list, Glyder Fawr becoming Wales’ newest Super Mountain and Castell y Gwynt becoming Wales’ newest 3,000ft P15.  Outside of the hill lists I originated there are many that have benefited from these surveys including; the Majors, Marilyns, Munros, Corbetts, Hewitts, Nuttalls and Deweys.  Other prominent surveys include the addition of new 2,000ft mountains, such as Mynydd Graig Goch, Bera Mawr, Fan y Big and Foel Penolau in Wales and Thack Moor and Calf Top in England.  With Mynydd y Cwm, Mynydd Anelog and Rhinog Fach becoming new Marilyns, the latter possibly the last new British Marilyn confirmed via GNSS survey. 

I have even attempted to move the border between Wales and England and surveyed Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech prior to it becoming recognised by Guinness World Records as the steepest street in the world. 

Many of these surveys have gained national and international recognition with the news covered in broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, local, national and international radio and television including BBC Wales and ITV Wales and their counterparts of BBC and ITN covering the whole of Britain.  I even made page 3 of The Sun once! 

 

Passions: 

I enjoy landscape photography and have exhibited framed prints in various places throughout Wales, with the Mapping Mountains site now my main vehicle for publication. 

I have a passion for Welsh upland place-name research having contacted over 600 farmers, shepherds, grazers, land owners, local historians and academics.  All details are documented with many now forming more appropriate names for hills in the listings I am associated with. 

 

Articles: 

Prior to setting up the Mapping Mountains site I had a number of articles published in magazines that I either authored or co-authored, including; High mountain sports, Walking Wales Cerdded Cymru magazine, Scotland magazine, Lakeland Walker, Nottinghamshire Life and Country, The Wiltshire Country Magazine, Scottish Mountaineer, Welsh Country and Cumbria magazine. 

In recent years these articles have been concentrated online with publication mainly on UKHillwalking and Grough. 

 

Hill Lists: 

I am the author, co-author, co-custodian author and contributor to a number of hill lists, including: 

The Welsh P15s, Y Pellennig – The Remotest Hills of Wales, Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales and the Twmpau. 

Irish Marilyns and the Irish Hewitts. 

The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales (The Deweys), The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland, Irish Dodds and the Cuigs. 

Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales, The Fours – The 400m Hills of England, The 400-Metre Tops of Ireland (published as The Carns), The BritFours – The 400m Hills of Britain and The BEFours – The 400m Hills of Britain and Éire. 

Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales. 

The Huws – 100 great Welsh hills under 2,000ft. 

 

Research: 

Outside of documented surveys, hill list compilation and place-name enquiries my research has concentrated on The History of Welsh Hill Lists and Ireland – The List of Lists.  Both are available on Mapping Mountains; the former in written format and the latter in Google Doc format. 

 

Lastly: 

I am a member of the Legacy Committee set up to safeguard the entire hill-related papers, card index and memoir of the late E.D. ‘Clem’ Clements and I am also an honorary life member of the Snowdonia Society. 

Since the summer of 2015 the Mapping Mountains site has been archived on a monthly basis at the National Library of Wales (NLW) as part of the UK Web Archive; a partnership between the National Library of Wales, the British Library, JISC and the Welcome Library.  The archived copy of Mapping Mountains will form part of the permanent collections at NLW, with the site identified as an important part of Wales’ documentary heritage and with it being archived it will remain available to researchers in the future. 

Myrddyn Phillips

 

If you want to get in touch, please email me at: 

myrddynphillips{at}yahoo.co.uk  (replace {at} with @)