Myrddyn Phillips - Mapping Mountains: Cae Duon

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Friday, 23 May 2025

Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – The Welsh P15s

Cae Duon (SJ 075 090)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the The Welsh P15s, 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 Cae Duon (SJ 075 090)

The criteria for the list that this name change applies to are:

The Welsh P15s – Welsh hills with 15m minimum drop, irrespective of their height, with an accompanying sub list entitled the Welsh Sub-P15s, with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills with 14m or more and below 15m of drop. The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips, with the Introduction to the list appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 10^th May 2019.

The Welsh P15s by Myrddyn Phillips

The hill is adjoined to the Carnedd Wen group of hills, which are situated in the southern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned with minor roads to its north-west and east, with the A458 road to its south-west, and has the town of Llanfair Caereinion towards the south-east.

When the listing that became known as The Welsh P15s was being compiled, this hill was included in the main list under the point (Pt. 168m) notation with an estimated c 15m of drop, based on the 168m summit spot height positioned on a road at SJ 07581 09015 that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map, and an estimated c 153m bwlch height, based on interpolation of 5m contouring between 150m – 155m.

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 2596 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 Cae Duon in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish named as Llanfair and in the county named as Montgomery.

Extract from the apportionments

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the The Welsh P15s is Cae Duon, and this was derived from the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group: Carnedd Wen

Name: Cae Duon

Previously Listed Name: Pt. 168m

OS 1:50,000 map: 125

Summit Height: 167.2m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference: SJ 07592 09025 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height: 150.9m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 07395 09423 (LIDAR)

Drop: 16.25m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips (May 2025)

Mapping Mountains – Summit Relocations – The Welsh P15s

Cae Duon (SJ 075 090)

There has been a Summit Relocation to a hill that is listed in the The Welsh P15s, 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 Cae Duon (SJ 075 090)

The criteria for the list that this summit relocation applies to are:

The Welsh P15s by Myrddyn Phillips

The name the hill is now listed by is Cae Duon, and this was derived from the Tithe map, and it is adjoined to the Carnedd Wen group of hills, which are situated in the southern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned with minor roads to its north-west and east, with the A458 road to its south-west, and has the town of Llanfair Caereinion towards the south-east.

When the listing that became known as The Welsh P15s was being compiled, this hill was included in the main list with an estimated c 15m of drop, based on the 168m summit spot height positioned on a road at SJ 07581 09015 that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map, and an estimated c 153m bwlch height, based on interpolation of 5m contouring between 150m – 155m.

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.

LIDAR analysis gives the highest ground on this hill as 167.8m positioned at SJ 07595 09031. However, this is to the top of a man-made mound and protocols dictate that as this is deemed a relatively recent man-made construct such ground is discounted from the height of a hill.

LIDAR summit image of Cae Duon (SJ 075 090)

The height produced by LIDAR analysis to the natural summit of this hill is 167.2m and is positioned at SJ 07592 09025, and this comes within the parameters of the Summit Relocations used within this page heading, these parameters are:

The term Summit Relocations applies when the high point of the hill is found to be positioned; in a different field, to a different feature such as in a conifer plantation, within a different map contour either on Ordnance Survey maps or interactive mapping, to a different point where a number of potential summit positions are within close proximity, when natural ground or the natural and intact summit of a hill is confirmed compared to a higher point such as a raised field boundary or covered reservoir that is considered a relatively recent man-made construct, or the de-twinning of a summit, or a relocation of approximately 100 metres or more in distance from either the position of a map spot height or from where the summit of the hill was previously thought to exist.

Therefore, the summit height produced by LIDAR analysis is 167.2m and is positioned at SJ 07592 09025, this position is not given a spot height on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map, and is approximately 11 metres north-eastward from where the spot height appears on the road and approximately 6 metres south-westward from the high point of the man-made mound.