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

Cwm Faerdy Bank (SO 078 695)

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 initial LIDAR analysis and a subsequent Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

Cwm Faerdy Bank (SO 078 695)

The criteria for the listing 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 Hirddywel group of hills, which are situated in the northern part of South Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with the Clywedog Brook to its west and the Afon Ieithon (River Ithon) to its east, and has the small community of Abaty Cwm-hir (Abbeycwmhir) towards the north-west. 

The hill appeared in the original 300m height band of Welsh P30 hills published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the invented and transposed name of Mynydd Cwmfaerdy Hill, with an accompanying note stating; Name from wood to the West.

Mynydd Cwmfaerdy

302m

SO078695

136/147

200

Name from wood to the West

During my early hill listing I thought it appropriate to either invent a name for a hill or use a name that appeared near to the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey maps of the day, with little consideration for the meaning of the name and where it was appropriately applied to.  My preference was to use farm names and put Pen, Bryn or Moel in front of them or as in this instance transpose the name of a wood and add the word Mynydd to it.  This is not a practice that I now advocate as with time and inclination place-name data can be improved either by asking local people or by examining historic documents, through this form of research an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found. 

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

Before visiting this hill I was fortunate to speak with the local farmer from Troed-rhiw-felen (SO 083 708) who invited me in to his conservatory where I sat with a drink as a fan gave respite from the increasingly warm conditions outside.  The farmer has asked me not to mention his name or use photographs that he kindly let me take.  He proved very knowledgeable and we talked for upwards of 30 minutes before he directed me to the track for the continuation of my walk.  During our conversation he gave me a number of names relating to local hills and explained that this hill is known as Cwm Faerdy Bank, with the land associated with it being a part of Cwm Faerdy farm (SO 079 699), which is positioned to the north of its summit.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales is Cwm Faerdy Bank, and this was derived from local enquiry.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Hirddywel

Name:  Cwm Faerdy Bank

Previously Listed Name:  Mynydd Cwmfaerdy

OS 1:50,000 map:  136, 147

Summit Height:  302.3m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 07842 69512

Bwlch Height:  269.9m (converted to OSGM15)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 08304 69664

Drop:  32.4m

Myrddyn Phillips (December 2018)