Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Yr Uchafion and Y Pellennig – The Remotest Hills of Wales

Craig Gwrelyg (SO 055 203)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Yr Uchafion and Y Pellennig - The Remotest Hills of Wales, with the summit height, drop and status of the hill initially ascertained by LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams and later confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips which took place on the 30^th June 2018.

LIDAR image of Craig Gwrelyg

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

Yr Uchafion – Welsh hills at or above 500m in height that have 15m minimum drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams, with the Introduction to the list appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 4^th November 2015.

Y Pellennig –The Remotest Hills of Wales - Welsh hills whose summit is at least 2.5km from the nearest paved public road and the hill has a minimum 15m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is available as a downloadable e-booklet or print-booklet version on Mapping Mountains Publications with the up-to-date master list available on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

The hill is adjoined to the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) group of hills, which are situated in the South Wales Region (Region C, Sub-Region C2), and it is positioned between the towns of Aberhonddu (Brecon) towards its north and Merthyr Tudful to its south.

The hill first made an appearance in a published hill list in the 1940 edition of the Rucksack Club Journal when Ted Moss listed it as Craig Cwareli in his list entitled The Two-thousands of Wales.  The hill has since been listed by a variety of names including; Craig Pwllfa (subsid), Gwaun Cerrig Llwydion, Bwlch y Ddwyallt and Graig Fan Las.

Hill list authors are prone to list a hill by the name that appears nearest to its summit on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps, without much consideration for its local or historical confirmation, or whether map placement is appropriate, and in the case of this hill the name of Bwlch y Ddwyallt appears close to this hill’s summit on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map

When this hill was first included in the Yr Uchafion it was listed as Bwlch y Ddwyallt, it was only towards the end of the compilation of this list that place-name enquiries were made with local people including farmers, grazers and landowners.

One of the locals contacted in this area has his family farm to the north of this hill and gave the name of Gurelig Rocks for the cliffs to the immediate north and north-west of this hill’s summit.  This name is an anglicised version of Craig Gwrelyg with the cwm of the same name given on the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch 'Old Series' map

The name of the cliffs to the immediate north of this hill’s summit was given this person by his father, and when asked about the name of Cwm Cwareli which appears on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps, he had never heard of it.  He also confirmed that Bwlch y Ddwyallt is the name of the bwlch between this hill and Waun Rydd (SO 062 206) and is not applicable to the hill itself.

The cliffs of Craig Gwrelyg

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Yr Uchafion and Y Pellennig – The Remotest Hills of Wales is Craig Gwrelyg and this was derived from local enquiry.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Bannau Brycheiniog

Name:  Craig Gwrelyg

Previously Listed Name:  Bwlch y Ddwyallt

Summit Height:  753.9m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  160

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 05521 20383

Drop:  18.9m (converted to OSGM15)

Gathering data with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 at the summit of Craig Gwrelyg

For details on the survey of this hill

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (November 2018)