Pen y Clun (SN 926 874)
There has been a
Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their
locations, the drop and status of the hill confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000
survey and latterly LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.
 |
| Pen y Clun (SN 926 874) |
The criteria for the
list that this name change applies to are:
Y Trichant – The 300m
Hills of Wales. Welsh hills at or
above 300m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the
Sub-Trichant with the criteria for
this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in
height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop.
The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips, with the Introduction to the list and the renaming of it appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 13th May 2017.
 |
| Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips |
The hill is adjoined to the Pumlumon group of
hills, which are situated in the north-western
part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with minor roads to its east and
north, and the B4518 road to its south-west, and has the town of Llanidloes towards
the south-east.
The hill appeared in the
original Welsh 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the invented
name of Pen-y-gaer, with an
accompanying note stating; Name from ancient
fort at summit.
| Pen-y-gaer | 382m | SN926875 | 136 | 214 | Name from ancient fort at summit. |
During my early hill listing I thought it
appropriate to either invent a name for a hill, or use a name that appeared
near to the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey maps of the day. My preference was to use farm names and put Pen, Bryn
or Moel in front of them or as in
this instance use the generic term often used in Welsh for an ancient hill fort. 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, through this form of research
an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found.
 |
| Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map |
Since publication of these P30 lists on Geoff
Crowder’s v-g.me website there have been a number of Ordnance Survey 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 are current and
digitally updated such as the old Vector Map Local that used to be hosted on
the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, and
it is the series of Six-Inch maps that name the land taking in the summit of
this hill as Pen y Clun.
 |
| Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps |
As this hill comprises bounded land the Tithe
map was consulted. 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 829 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 a sheepwalk adjoined to the farm of Pen y Clun, and this
substantiates the information given on the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch
maps.
Therefore, the name this hill is
now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Pen y Clun, and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey series
of Six-Inch maps with the area of land known by this name confirmed by the
Tithe map.
The full details for the
hill are:
Group: Pumlumon
Name: Pen y Clun
Previously Listed
Name: Pen-y-gaer
OS 1:50,000 map: 136
Summit Height: 381.7m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000)
Summit Grid
Reference: SN 92639 87499 (Trimble GeoXH
6000)
Bwlch Height: 350.2m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid
Reference: SN 92437 87531 (LIDAR)
Drop: 31.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Myrddyn Phillips
(November 2020)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)