Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales

Mynydd yr Ychen (SN 768 794)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill confirmed by 1m DSM LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams.

LIDAR image of Mynydd yr Ychen (SN 768 794)

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

Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales.  Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main Y Pedwarau list are five categories of sub hills, with this hill being listed in the 400m Sub-Pedwar category.  The criteria for 400m Sub-Pedwar status being all Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is published on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

The hill is adjoined to the Elenydd group of hills, which are situated in the northern part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with the A4120 road and the Afon Rheidol to its west, and the A44 road to its north, and has the small community of Pontarfynach (Devil’s Bridge) towards the south-west and the village of Ponterwyd towards the north-west.

The hill was listed in the 1^st edition of the Y Pedwarau published by Europeaklist in May 2013 under the point (Pt. 459m) notation, as the authors could not substantiate either from local enquiry and / or historic research the land applicable to Mynydd yr Ychen, which is a prominent name that appears close to the summit of this hill on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps, and which can be traced back to the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map. 

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

The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map was the first map that the Ordnance Survey produced, and their publication culminated from the whole of Britain being surveyed between 1791 and 1874 and the detail gathered therein produced at a scale of one inch to the mile and published in sheet format between 1805 and 1874.  The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ maps for the whole of Wales are now available online; they are also available in map format as enlarged and re-projected versions to match the scale and dimensions of the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger series and are published by Cassini.  This series of maps form another important part in the study of Welsh upland place-names and bridge the timeframe leading up to the production of the Ordnance Survey base map of the Six-Inch series.

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

Since publication of the 1^st edition of Y Pedwarau the Tithe maps for Wales have become available online.  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.

It is the Tithe map that confirms the adjacent pieces of enclosed land adjoined to the summit of this hill and positioned north of Nant Gwynion were once as one, and this confirms the placement of the name of Mynydd yr Ychen on the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map as being appropriate to use for the name of this hill.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales is Mynydd yr Ychen, and this was derived from contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps, with its placement on the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map confirmed via the Tithe map.  

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Elenydd

Name:  Mynydd yr Ychen

Previously Listed Name:  Pt. 459m

OS 1:50,000 map:  135, 147

Summit Height:  459.92m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 76846 79456 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  439.92m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 77052 79547 (LIDAR)

Drop:  20.0m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (January 2020)