Mapping Mountains – Summit Relocations – 30-99m Twmpau, Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales and Y Pellennig – The Remotest Hills of Wales

The Head (SM 731 046) 

There has been a Summit Relocation to a hill that is listed in the 30-99m Twmpau, Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales and Y Pellennig – The Remotest Hills of Wales, with the summit height and its location, the drop, dominance, remoteness and status of the hill prompted by detail produced by Joe Nuttall in his surface analysis programme (JNSA). 

The criteria for the three listings that this summit relocation applies to are: 

30-99m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 30-99m Sub-Twmpau, with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m 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. 

30-99m Twmpau by Myrddyn Phillips

Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales – Welsh P30 hills whose prominence equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  With the criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those additional Welsh P30 hills whose prominence is between one third and half that of their absolute height.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the start of the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 3^rd December 2015, and the list is now available in its entirety on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format. 

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips

Y Pellennig – The Remotest Hills of Wales - Welsh hills whose summit is at least 2.5km from the nearest paved public road and the hill has 15m minimum drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is available as a downloadable e-booklet and print-booklet version on Mapping Mountains Publications with the up-to-date master list available to download on the Mapping Mountains site in Google Doc format.

Y Pellennig - The Remotest Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The name the hill is listed by is The Head, and it is adjoined to the Garn Fawr group of hills which are situated in the south-western part of South Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B1), and it is positioned on the island of Skokholm which is positioned to the south-west of the Pembrokeshire coast.

When the original 30-99m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill was included in the main P30 list with a 55m summit height positioned at SM 730 047, with an accompanying note stating; Height from 1:10000 map, details from David Purchase.

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 with an estimated c 56m summit height and drop, based on interpolation of its largest 55m uppermost contour positioned at SM 72969 04698.  The summit position was subsequently and slightly amended to SM 72970 04701 from detail that appeared on the Hill Bagging website. 

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

However, it was not until Joe Nuttall developed his surface analysis programme that the details of this hill could be analysed via the OS Terrain product.  The height produced by the surface analysis programme is 55.0m and this is positioned at SM 73112 04672, 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 height produced by the surface analysis programme developed by Joe Nuttall is 55.0m and is positioned at SM 73112 04672, 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 55m contour and approximately 42 metres eastward from where the previously listed summit is positioned. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Garn Fawr

Name:  The Head

OS 1:50,000 map:  157

Summit Height:  55.0m (JNSA)

Summit Grid Reference (New Position):  SM 73112 04672 (JNSA)

Bwlch Height:  N/A (island)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  N/A (island)

Drop:  55.0m (JNSA)

Dominance:  100.00% (island)

Remoteness:  5.21km (JNSA)

 

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (May 2024)