Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – 100m Twmpau

Coed Uchaf (SJ 232 683) – 100m Twmpau reclassified to 100m Sub-Twmpau

There has been a reclassification to the list of 100m Twmpau, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from detail produced by Joe Nuttall in his surface analysis programme, with subsequent LIDAR analysis conducted by the DoBIH team and independently by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Coed Uchaf (SJ 232 683)

The criteria for the list that this reclassification applies to are:

100m Twmpau – Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 100m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward. 

The 100m Twmpau by Myrddyn Phillips

The name the hill is now listed by is Coed Uchaf, and it is adjoined to the Moel y Gamelin group of hills, which are situated in the north-eastern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A2), and it is positioned encircled by minor roads, with the A55 road farther to its north, the B5123 road farther to its west, the A541 road farther to its south and the A5119 road farther to its east, and has the town of Y Fflint (Flint) towards the north.

When the original 100m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill was included in the Hills to be surveyed sub list, as it was considered not to meet the criteria then used for the main P30 category. 

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.

After the sub list was standardised, and interpolated heights and drop values also included the details for this hill were re-evaluated against the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map.  This mapping had many spot heights not on other publicly available maps and for this hill it had a 162m summit spot height positioned at SJ 23209 68591 and with an estimated c 132m bwlch height based on interpolation of 5m contouring between 130m – 135m, these values gave this hill an estimated c 30m of drop and therefore it was reclassified to 100m Twmpau status.

However, it was not until LIDAR became available that the details for this hill could be accurately re-assessed.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales.

Therefore, the reclassification of this hill to 100m Sub-Twmpau status is due to LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 161.7m summit height and a 132.6m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 29.1m of drop, which is insufficient for it to be classified as a 100m Twmpau. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Moel y Gamelin 

Name:  Coed Uchaf 

OS 1:50,000 map:  117

Summit Height:  161.7m (LIDAR) 

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 23205 68344 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  132.6m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 23101 68383 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  29.1m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (January 2024)