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

 

Fforest (SN 777 393) 

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop, dominance and status of the hill derived from LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Fforest (SN 777 393)

The criteria for the two listings 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. 

Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips

Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales – Welsh P30 hills whose prominence equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  With the criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those additional Welsh P30 hills whose prominence is between one third and half that 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, and which is now available in its entirety on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format. 

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips

The hill is adjoined to the Elenydd group of hills, which are situated in the central part of the Mid and West Wales Region (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with minor roads to its west and south-east, and the A483 road farther to its south-east, and has the town of Llanymddyfri (Llandovery) towards the south. 

When the original 300m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill was listed under the directional name of Fforest North-East Top, with an accompanying note stating; Name from hill to the South-West.

Fforest North-East Top

341m

SN778393

146/160

187

Name from hill to the South-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.  My preference was to use farm names and put Pen, Bryn or Moel in front of them, or as in this instance use a directional name based on the name given an adjacent hill to the south-west on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.  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

The previously listed name of Fforest North-East Top was based on the position of the name Fforest on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.  This position is at contrast to how it appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map, with the former intimating that the name is just applicable to the lower adjacent hill to the south-west, whilst the latter intimates that the name is applicable to both hills. 

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map

Since publication of these P30 lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website there have been a number of Ordnance Survey maps made available online, some of these are historic such as the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the old Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was named the Interactive Coverage Map and the interactive mapping on the Magic Maps and WalkLakes websites.  One of the historic maps now available is the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map which when coupled with the positioning on this hill’s name on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map formed the basis for the change in this hill’s listed name. 

Extract from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch 'Old Series' 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, and importantly for this hill and its listed name, it is this map that shows the extended name of Fforest taking in this hill and its lower adjacent hill to the south-west. 

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales is Fforest, and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map and substantiated by the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Elenydd 

Name:  Fforest 

Previously Listed Name:  Fforest North-East Top 

OS 1:50,000 map:  146, 160

Summit Height:  341.3m (LIDAR)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 77781 39333 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  197.4m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 78243 41343 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  143.9m (LIDAR) 

Dominance:  42.17% (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2021)