Mapping Mountains – Summit Relocations – 100m Twmpau

Coed Uchaf (SJ 232 683) 

There has been a Summit Relocation to a hill that is listed in the 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 summit relocation 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 listed with a summit height of c 160m positioned at SJ 232 686, based on the uppermost non-interpolated ring contour that appears on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

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. 

LIDAR image of the old summit position at SJ 23205 68597

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. 

LIDAR image of the new Coed Uchaf summit position at SJ 23205 68344

The height produced by LIDAR analysis to the summit of this hill is 161.7m positioned at SJ 23205 68344, as opposed to the old listed summit which LIDAR gives as 160.5m positioned at SJ 23205 68597, and this comes within the parameters of the Summit Relocations used within this page heading, these parameters are:

The term Summit Relocations applies when the high point of the hill is found to be positioned; in a different field, to a different feature such as in a conifer plantation,  within a different map contour, to a different point where a number of potential summit positions are within close proximity, when natural ground or the natural and intact summit of a hill is confirmed compared to a higher point such as a raised field boundary or covered reservoir that is judged to be a relatively recent man-made construct, or a relocation of approximately 100 metres or more in distance from either the position of a map spot height or from where the summit of the hill was previously thought to exist.

Therefore, the summit height produced by LIDAR analysis is 161.7m and this is positioned at SJ 23205 68344, this position is not given a spot height on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map, and is positioned to a different feature; a wood as opposed to an open field and is approximately 253 metres southward from where the originally listed summit is positioned. 

 

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 (New Position):  SJ 23205 68344 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  132.6m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 23101 68383 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  29.1m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (February 2024)