Yr Aran (SJ 174 260)
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 detail on
contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data.
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 13th May 2017, and the Introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of the list appearing on the 1st January 2022.
 |
| Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips |
 |
| Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips |
The hill is adjoined to the Craig Berwyn group of
hills, which are situated in the eastern
part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned with the B4580 road to its
north, minor roads to its west and east and the B4396 road to its south, and
has the village of Llangedwyn towards the south-east.
The hill appeared in the
original Welsh 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the name
of Mynydd-y-briw; which is a
prominent name that appears close to the summit of this hill on the contemporary
Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map.
| Mynydd-y-briw | 341m | SJ174260 | 125 | 239 | Marilyn. Clem/Yeaman. |
During my early hill listing I paid little regard to name placement on the map, or the meaning of names and to what feature the name was appropriately applied to. Therefore, I prioritised names for listing purposes that I now understand are either inappropriate or where another name is viewed as being more appropriate. 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.
 |
| Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map |
When compiling the Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales list I made place-name
enquires regarding this hill with one of the local farmers; who was the father
of a friend of an ex-girlfriend. I was
told by the local farmer that the hill is known as Yr Aran.
Since the original publication of the Welsh P30
lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website there have been a number of 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 were
digitally updated such as the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local that was hosted
on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map,
whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the interactive mapping
on the Magic Maps and WalkLakes websites.
One
of the historic maps now available online is the Ordnance Survey Draft
Surveyors map which formed the basis for the first publicly available Ordnance
Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map, and it is the Draft Surveyors map along with
the Ordnance Survey Six-Inch map that substantiates the information the local
farmer gave me.
The Draft Surveyors maps
consist of the preliminary drawings made by the Ordnance Survey surveyors
between the 1780s and 1840 and formed the basis for the first publicly
available One-Inch map. They were drawn
at scales of six inches to the mile for areas considered of particular military
significance and down to two inches to the mile for other areas. Fair copies were then produced from these
preliminary drawings to one inch to the mile and then copper plates were
prepared for printing. The Draft
Surveyors maps for the whole of Wales are now available online and they form an
important part in the study of Welsh upland place-names as they bridge the time
frame between the late 18th century and the mid-19th
century when the Ordnance Survey produced their first One-Inch maps, and
importantly for this hill and its listed name, it is this map that names the
hill as Yr Aran.
 |
| Extract from the Ordnance Survey Draft Surveyors map |
The Ordnance Survey series of
Six-Inch maps formed the base map Ordnance Survey used for many decades leading
to the production of the 1:10,000 Series of maps, both have now been superseded
by the digitised Master Map. The series
of Six-Inch maps are excellent for name placement and especially so compared to
the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map, and it is the series of
Six-Inch maps that name this hill as Aran, with the definite article Yr not given. The detail given on the Ordnance Survey
series of Six-Inch maps is also reproduced on the contemporary Ordnance Survey
1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map.
 |
| Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps |
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 Yr Aran, and this was derived from local
enquiry and substantiated by the Ordnance
Survey Draft Surveyors map and the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps,
with the caveat of the retention of the definite article Yr as given by local enquiry.
The full details for the
hill are:
Group: Craig Berwyn
Name: Yr Aran
Previously Listed
Name: Mynydd-y-briw
OS 1:50,000 map: 125
Summit Height: 341m (spot height)
Summit Grid
Reference: SJ 17404 26074 (hand-held GPS
via DoBIH)
Bwlch Height: c 181m (interpolation)
Bwlch Grid
Reference: SJ 17597 26834 (interpolation)
Drop: c 160m (spot height summit and interpolated
bwlch)
Dominance: 46.92% (spot height summit and interpolated
bwlch)
Myrddyn Phillips (April
2022)
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