Topographical Regions, Sub-Regions and Groups

 

Understanding the Welsh Land Mass 

 

Introduction 

From the earliest to the latest, the contents of hill listings have been organised into smaller segments, commonly comprising districts, regions, sections or groups.  Doing so makes it easier to find any individual hill and also breaks up the listing into more manageable units. 

We have opted to use Regions, Sub-Regions and Groups for our split of Wales.  Each follows topography. 

Topography dictates that a land mass is split via watercourses and low points in the terrain, i.e. a col, which is known in Welsh as a bwlch (singular) or bylchau (plural).  If following the course of a river to its source it will be the height and position of the bwlch at or near the source that will be the point at which the Group, Sub-Region and Region is formed.  The advantage of using a topographic system to organise a land mass into smaller units is that the natural lay of the land is represented, with each listed hill connected topographically to its parent peak.  This is not the case for listings that split up the land based on man-made structures, such as roads, or administrative boundaries, such as parish or county units.

 

The perils of a geo-topographical system 

Prior to using just topography to form the Regional, Sub-Regional and Group split of Wales, we originally split the country using a combination of geography and topography into three Regions referred to as ‘North Wales’, ‘Mid & West Wales’ and ‘South Wales’.  As the Groups of Mynydd Du and Ysgyryd Fawr are geographically a part of ‘South Wales’, we listed these as such.  However, topographically these Groups are not joined to the other Groups within the old ‘South Wales’ Region, but are joined to Groups within the old ‘Mid & West Wales’ Region.

Using a geographical bias also meant that other Groups were not topographically joined.  An example of this is that we had previously positioned the Craig Berwyn Group to appear within a different Sub-Region to the Aran Fawddwy Group, having split the Sub-Regions along the Dyfi and Cynllwyd valleys.  This split provided a reasonable geographical symmetry, but violated topographic rules by the fact that Esgeiriau Gwynion, Foel Cedig and Carnedd Wen all have Aran Fawddwy as their parent peak and that Craig Berwyn is more closely related to Aran Fawddwy than Moel Siabod.  We have now rectified these and other anomalies.

 

Cymru Fawr – Greater Wales 

Wales is an interesting land mass to create topographical Regions, Sub-Regions and Groups from.  Using any relatively large area of land to create sub-divisions can be enhanced if they comprise a similar area with a similar amount of hills. However, when creating these sub-divisions, Welsh topography must be viewed outside the confines of the modern-day national border. 

The topographical land-mass of Wales extends eastward beyond its border with England, with its pivotal point found in a field on the outskirts of Market Drayton in Shropshire.  LIDAR analysis gives this point a height of 66.1m positioned at SJ 63688 33945.  This pivotal point is a topographical axis and is also the critical col for the highest peak in England; Scafell Pike. 

We refer to this topographical land area as Cymru Fawr – Greater Wales.

The topographical axis point of Cymru Fawr – Greater Wales can be shown by an imagined rise in water level, where the water just skims the singular axis point in the field on the outskirts of Market Drayton.  By doing so the remaining land-mass of Cymru Fawr – Greater Wales becomes an island with the unfortunate byproduct of substantial coastal community devastation!

                                                    

Taking the water level back to the present day, we can follow the topographical boundary from the axis point in the field just outside of Market Drayton northward following the course of the infant River Duckow to its confluence with the River Weaver and eventual discharge into the River Mersey.  Now back at the axis point, we can follow the topographical boundary southward to a part of the Bailey Brook that joins the River Tern, which then joins the Afon Hafren (River Severn) south-east of Shrewsbury (Amwythig) with this forming the boundary all the way to its culmination in the Môr Hafren (Bristol Channel).  This is the course of the defining topographical boundary of Cymru Fawr – Greater Wales.

There are other topographical axis points in Britain, the most significant being the bwlch of Yr Wyddfa, which is positioned beside the Forth & Clyde Canal in Scotland and the bealach of Càrn Èite.  For the purpose of cataloguing and listing hills, such axis points can be used to divide the whole of Britain into manageable topographical units.  However, as Cymru Fawr – Greater Wales represents just one portion of Great Britain, it is prudent to include the remaining land within England and Scotland to properly evaluate the essential characteristics of Regions, Sub-Regions and Groups, by doing so an adequate level of consistency and robustness is achieved.

Topographical Regions, Sub-Regions and Groups 

Our revised topographical split of Wales comprises two Regions, the northern portions being labelled C1 and the southern being C2.  These two Regions are ordered into Sub-Regions, again following the rules of topography, which comprise of topographical Groups parented by a significant peak.  This topographical system is shared for both Wales as a country and Wales as a land-mass, and is mirrored by four English Regions (B1-4) parented by Scafell Pike, and four Scottish Regions (A1-4) parented by Beinn Nibheis, similarly divided into various Sub-Regions and a multitude of Groups.

Our topographical system was devised through an initial evaluation at the Group level.  We worked on the principle that Groups should complement one another in terms of both the topographical significance and the absolute quantity of hills contained within the Group boundaries. 

We used the following as rough guidelines:

• Groups should be defined by the topographical limits of parent peaks (i.e. limited by the parent peak bwlch and the surrounding watercourses), aiming to hold no more than circa 100 P30 hills (i.e. prominence of 30m).  A parent peak is considered significant in terms of height and prominence within the context of its Sub-Region or Region.
• Regions should be defined by major topographical axis points, typically holding circa 1000-2500 P30 hills.
• Sub-Regions should be considered for topographical areas containing circa 250-850 P30 hills (i.e. a buffered middle-ground) in order to provide an ordered structure to Regions.
• Regions, Sub-Regions and Groups are defined by natural topography, irrespective of man-made changes.

We have chosen to use the name of the highest peak in each Group as that for the Group name.  Further research and evaluation may mean that some names are amended in the future.

In summary, we have created manageable Groups of hills based on Regions and Sub-Regions dictated by watercourses and topographical axis points.  The Groups representing Cymru Fawr – Greater Wales have been carefully chosen and are divided and numbered from 1-52; a Group for each week of the year!  When this topographic system is applied to Wales as a country, only two out of the fifty-two Groups are omitted; Brown Clee and Worcestershire Beacon.  The end result is a use of natural occurring features to define units of land that are manageable for hill-listing purposes for both Wales as a country and as a land-mass.

 

Aled Williams and Myrddyn Phillips (January 2022, revised July 2026)

Sub-Region C1A Groups:
1.       Mynydd Twr
2.      Carnedd Llywelyn
3.      Glyder Fawr
4.      Yr Wyddfa
5.      Moel Hebog
6.      Yr Eifl
7.      Moel Siabod
8.     Moelwyn Mawr
9.      Arenig Fach
10.  Arenig Fawr
11.   Y Llethr
12.  Carnedd y Filiast
13.  Mynydd Hiraethog
14.  Moel y Gamelin

Sub-Region C1B Groups:
15.   Raw Head
16.  Craig Berwyn
17.   Foel Cedig
18.  Esgeiriau Gwynion
19.  Aran Fawddwy
20. Cadair Idris
21.  Tarren y Gesail
22. Carnedd Wen

Sub-Region C2A Groups:
23. Pumlumon
24. Llechwedd Mawr
25.  Y Garn
26. Carn yr Hyrddod
27.  Mynydd Bach
28. Drygarn Fawr
29. Esgair Wen
30. Mynydd Mallaen
31.  Mynydd Pencarreg
32. Mynydd Preseli
33. Garn Fawr
34. Mynydd Epynt
35.  Mynydd Du
36. Ysgyryd Fawr

Sub-Region C2B Groups:
37.  Hirddywel
38. Cilfaisty
39. Bigwn
40. Fforest Glud
41.  Gwaun Ceste
42. Stiperstones
43. Brown Clee
44. Worcestershire Beacon
45.  May Hill

Sub-Region C2C Groups:
46. Mynydd Du
47.  Mynydd Sylen
48. Penlle’r Castell
49. Fan Fawr
50. Pen y Fan
51.   Cefn yr Ystrad
52.  Craig y Llyn