Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 30-99m Twmpau

Emsger (SM 651 226) 

There has been a Significant Name Change that is retrospective to a hill that is listed in the 30-99m Twmpau, with the summit height and its location, the drop and status of the hill derived from a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.                       

Emsger (SM 651 226)

The criteria for the list that this name change 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.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward. 

30-99m Twmpau by Myrddyn Phillips

The hill 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 with the nearest minor road on the mainland to its east north-east, and has the city of Tyddewi (St David’s) on the mainland towards the east north-east.

When the original 30-99m height band of Welsh P30 hills compiled by Myrddyn Phillips were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill appeared under the transposed name of Em-sger or South Bishop, which is a prominent name that appears adjacent to this island on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map.  Soon afterward Myrddyn Phillips compiled the dominant and remote listings, and in these original compilations the name of Emsger was prioritised. 

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

Both names are applicable to the same island, with South Bishop originating from English and Emsger probably originating from Old Norse, with the latter documented in 1717  incorporating a Welsh word as Carreg Emskar (Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales by Hywel Wyn Owen and Richard Morgan and published by Gomer Press in 2007).

Therefore, the prioritised name this hill is now listed by in the 30-99m Twmpau is Emsger, and this was derived from a variety of sources, including the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Garn Fawr

Name:  Emsger 

Previously Listed Name:  Em-sger or South Bishop   

OS 1:50,000 map:  157

Summit Height:  33.8m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000) 

Summit Grid Reference:  SM 65116 22619               

Bwlch Height:  N/A (sea level) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  N/A (sea level) 

Drop:  33.8m (Trimble GeoXH 6000) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (July 2026)