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

Foel Fain (SH 983 124) 

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 LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Foel Fain (SH 983 124)

The criteria for the list 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 Esgeiriau Gwynion group of hills, which are situated in the southern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned with a minor road to its north and east and the A458 road to its south, and has the village of Llangadfan towards the south-east.

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the directional name of Y Fron East Top, with an accompanying note stating; Name from hill to the West.

Y Fron East Top

320m

SH983124

125

239

Name from hill 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.  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 supplanting the name of a near hill and adding a directional component 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

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.

The details for this hill were re-assessed when the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map became available online.  This mapping had the name of Foel Fain positioned close to the summit of this hill.

Another of the mapping resources now available online is the Magic Maps website which hosts an interactive map originated from Ordnance Survey data.  This mapping also shows the name of Foel Fain positioned close to the summit of this hill. 

Extract from the Magic Maps website

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Foel Fain and this was derived from Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Esgeiriau Gwynion 

Name:  Foel Fain 

Previously Listed Name:  Y Fron East Top 

OS 1:50,000 map:  125 

Summit Height:  319.8m (LIDAR)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 98313 12471 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  299.1m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 98122 12507 & SH 98106 12503 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  20.7m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (May 2022)