Myrddyn Phillips - Mapping Mountains: Garth Ganol

Showing posts with label Garth Ganol. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 December 2021

Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales

Garth Ganol (SH 626 394)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop, dominance and status of the hill derived from LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of Garth Ganol (SH 626 394)

The criteria for the two listings that this name change applies to are:

30-99m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m in height with 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.

The 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, with the Introduction to 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

The hill is adjoined to the Moelwynion group of hills, which are situated in the north-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and it is positioned with the A487 road to its north-west and the A496 road to its south-east, and has the town of Penrhyndeudraeth towards the west.

The hill appeared in the original 30-99m Welsh P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the transposed name of Bryn Dwyryd, which is a prominent name that appears close to this hill on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps.

Bryn Dwyryd

75m

SH626395

124

During my early hill listing I paid little regard to name placement on the map, or the meaning of names and to what feature the name was appropriately applied to. Therefore, I prioritised names for listing purposes that I now understand are either inappropriate or where another name is viewed as being more appropriate, with the previously listed name of Bryn Dwyryd presumed to be that of the hill, when it is a name of a house. This is not a practice that I now advocate as with time and inclination place-name data can be improved either by asking local people or by examining historic documents.

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

As the summit of this hill comprises bounded land the details for it were examined on the Tithe map. The term Tithe map is generally given to a map of a Welsh or English parish or township and which was prepared after the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act. This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods. The Tithe maps gave names of owners and occupiers of land in each parish and importantly for place-name research they also included the name of enclosed land. This enclosed land is usually based on a field system, however not every field is given a name, but many are and especially so in Wales.

Extract from the Tithe map

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 1433 on the Tithe map, this can be cross referenced against the apportionments; it is these apportionments that give the name of the owner or occupier of the land as well as the name of the land. The land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as Garth Ganol in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parishes of Llanfihangel-y-traethau and Llandecwyn and in the county named as Merioneth.

Extract from the apportionments

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales is Garth Ganol and this was derived from the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group: Moelwynion

Name: Garth Ganol

Previously Listed Name: Bryn Dwyryd

OS 1:50,000 map: 124

Summit Height: 75.6m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference: SH 62600 39430 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height: 27.7m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 62671 40069 (LIDAR)

Drop: 47.8m (LIDAR)

Dominance: 63.30% (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips (December 2021)

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Moelwyn Mawr

22.09.21 Garth Ganol (SH 626 394)

LIDAR image of Garth Ganol (SH 626 394)

Garth Ganol was the last of three hills we visited during the day. Each were wooded, with the first; Bryn y Gwynt (SH 599 499) and this last hill being relatively easy walks compared to the brambled domain of the second hill; Cefn Coch (SH 610 396).

These three hills proved an ideal way to salvage the day as the weather in the morning was particularly unwelcome, with low cloud and wet conditions in this part of Wales, which meant that our planned outing to Moel y Dyniewyd (SH 612 477) and it adjacent hills was shelved for a more favourable day.

Garth Ganol forms a part of a small peninsula overlooking the Afon Dwyryd close to where it deposits its contents in to the sea. Aled had previously approached this hill from the south-west and visited an intermediary top. This approach was recommended but it would also give us a longer route through probable unsavoury undergrowth. Therefore, we opted for the easy approach and drove up an unmarked paved road to just below the summit to its north.

Before starting up the hill I asked permission at a house beside the road named Bryn Dwyryd, whether we could park the car beside a large barn a 100 or so metres from the house, with permission granted we eventually opted to park close to a gate which was off the paved section of road.

Heading up through the wooded northerly slopes of the hill

The gate gave access in to woodland that forms a large part of this hill. Above us were bee hives which we not surprisingly purposely avoided. Once through the first gate, a dirt track led to another solid gate and from here I followed Aled as he weaved a way upward through the mature woodland to emerge out of the trees near the summit of the hill.

Bracken, gorse and heather and the added bonus of a barb wired fence

We were now standing on a small intermediary top with the summit of the hill on the other side of a barb wired fence, between us and it was a good scattering of gorse. Although prickly if wearing shorts; as I was, gorse is not problematic unless thick and high. Thankfully the gorse we encountered on this hill was neither and we were soon on what looked to be the summit. However, ground to our south-west needed investigating and I again followed Aled as he headed that way. Once there we deemed it higher.

Gathering data at the summit area of Garth Ganol

There were a number of points that vied for summit position, all a few metres apart and all of similar height, we chose the one we thought the highest and soon the Trimble was set up gathering data. When back home I analysed this hill with LIDAR and this gives the Trimble set-up position approximately eight metres from the summit and as the height produced by LIDAR is 0.25m higher than the height produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey, it is the LIDAR data that is being used for listing purposes. In our defence the summit identified by LIDAR looks to be positioned in a large outcrop of heather and gorse, with the natural ground below being extremely hard to distinguish in height compared to its near surrounds.

Looking out toward the rough surrounds of the northern Rhinogydd and the Afon Dwyryd

We of course, were oblivious to the LIDAR summit position, but it is always good to get a comparison against data produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000. During data collection I stood and admired the view south-eastward across to the rough slopes forming a part of the northern Rhinogydd and eastward down the near estuary of the Afon Dwyryd. It felt good to be on an open summit after the confines of the two previously visited wooded hills.

Heading down with the higher cloud enshrouded Moelwynion in the background

Once data were gathered and stored we reversed our inward route, back to and then over the barb wired fence and down through the wood to the awaiting car. It had been another excellent day with three hills visited, in good company with good conversation, a meal sitting outside a café in Llanfrothen, and a panad or two along the way!

Survey Result:

Garth Ganol (significant name change)