Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – 100m Twmpau

Comin Gwauncaegurwen (SN 738 129) – 100m Sub-Twmpau addition

There has been an addition to the list of 100m Twmpau, 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 Comin Gawuncaegurwen (SN 738 129)

The criteria for the list that this addition 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. 

100m Twmpau by Myrddyn Phillips

The name the hill is listed by is Comin Gwauncaegurwen and this was derived from the Tithe map with the language protocol also instigated, and it is adjoined to the Mynydd Du group of hills, which are situated in the southern part of South Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B5), and it is positioned with the A4068 road to its north-east, the A4069 road to its west and a minor road to its south-east, and has the village of Brynaman towards the west north-west. 

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map

When the original 100m 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 with no significant contours of note on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map it was difficult to know whether any hill of note existed. 

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.

One of the mapping resources now available online is the WalkLakes website which hosts an interactive map originated from the Ordnance Survey Open Data programme.  This map has many spot heights not on other publicly available maps and an uppermost 200m ring contour is given on the summit area of this hill. 

Extract from the interactive mapping hosted on the WalkLakes website

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 addition of this hill to 100m Sub-Twmpau status is due to LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 196.6m summit height and a 174.7m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 21.8m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a 100m Sub-Twmpau. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Mynydd Du 

Name:  Comin Gwauncaegurwen 

OS 1:50,000 map:  160

Summit Height:  196.6m (LIDAR) 

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 73812 12929 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  174.7m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 73776 13436 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  21.8m (LIDAR) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (September 2024)