Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales and Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales

Moel Fynydd (SH 697 161)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that appears in the following lists; Y Trichant and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the criteria for the two listings that this name change applies to are:

Y Trichant – All Welsh hills at and above 300m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub category entitled the Sub-Trichant consisting of all Welsh hills at and above 300m and below 400m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips and the Introduction to the list and the re-naming and publication history was published on Mapping Mountains on the 13^th May 2017.

Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales – All Welsh P30 hills whose prominence equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  With the criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those addition Welsh P30 hills whose prominence is 33% or more and below 50% of their absolute height.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the start of the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 3^rd December 2015.

The hill is adjoined to the Cadair Idris range of hills which are situated in the south-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it overlooks Llyn Gwernan to its east south-east and the town of Dolgellau to its east north-east. 

Moel Fynydd (SH 697 161)

The hill appeared in the 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Craig y Castell.  During my early hill listing I paid little regard to name placement on a map, or the meaning of names and to what feature the name was appropriately applied to and used many names that seemingly applied to a hill and whose placement was nearest the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey maps of the day.  Therefore I prioritised names for listing purposes that I now understand are inappropriate, and as the positioning of the name Craig y Castell on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps implies, that part of the hill is known by this name and is directly associated with an ancient fortification, and in the case of the hill whose summit is positioned at SH 697 161 it was a local farmer who has lived the whole of his life under this hill that gave the name of Moel Fynydd.

Craig y Castell

321m

SH698162

124

23

Marilyn. Clem/Yeaman. aka Moel Gwernan.

The local farmer is Emyr Rees who is aged 70 and is a Welsh speaker and has lived all of his life at Tynyceunant (SH 688 152), this farm is situated to the south-west of the hill.  When we met Emyr was wielding a large mallet and was in the process of fixing a post.  We met at the start of the access track beside the narrow road that leads to his farm and this hill was directly above us and therefore after introducing myself and explaining my interest in upland place-names, all I had to do was point and say ‘what about that one, has it a name?’, Emyr replied ‘that’s Moel Fynydd’.  Emyr also gave me a number of other names for near hills or the bounded land where the summit of each was situated, some have been detailed in previous Significant Name Changes posts, the one that has not will be detailed in a forthcoming one.

Emyr Rees of Tynyceunant

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales is Moel Fynydd and this name was derived from local enquiry.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Cadair Idris

Name:  Moel Fynydd

Previously Listed Name:  Craig y Castell 

OS 1:50,000 map:  124

Summit Height:  321.4m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 69777 16198 (LIDAR)   

Bwlch Height:  167.8m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 70838 16524 (LIDAR)

Drop:  153.6m (LIDAR)

Dominance:  47.78% (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips (April 2018)