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

Pt. 323m (SN 704 822) 

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 detail on contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data. 

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 Banc Llechwedd Mawr group of hills, which are situated in the northern part of South Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B1), and it is positioned with a minor road to its north-west  and the A44 road to its south, and has the village of Ponterwyd towards the east south-east.

When the original 300m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill was not included in the Hills to be surveyed sub list, as it was considered not to meet the criteria then used for this sub category. 

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

After the sub list was standardised, and interpolated heights and drop values also included the details for this hill were re-evaluated and it was listed under the name of Pen y Graig-ddu with 21m of drop.  This is a prominent name that appears to the east of the summit on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map and to the south-east of the summit on the 1:25,000 Explorer map and which the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps indicate is the name of a crag that is topographically not a part of this hill. 

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

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 transpose a prominent name that appears on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps and use it for that of the hill.  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.

However, on occasion even when research is conducted an appropriate name for the hill may not be found, and on such occasions the listing protocol is to use the point (Pt. 323m) notation, and for this hill this is such an example.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Pt. 323m, and this is being used as the author has not found an appropriate name for the hill either through historic research and/or local enquiry. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Banc Llechwedd Mawr 

Name:  Pt. 323m 

Previously Listed Name:  Pen y Graig-ddu 

OS 1:50,000 map:  135

Summit Height:  323m (spot height)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 70430 82201 (spot height) 

Bwlch Height:  c 303m (interpolation) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 70650 82212 (interpolation) 

Drop:  c 20m (spot height summit and interpolated bwlch) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (December 2022)