Snowdonia's Mynydd Graig Goch, left, was a hill yesterday. Now it is a mountain. Photograph: Dr Jeremy Williams/Envirodata-Eryri Hours of taking measurements in wind and rain have paid off for the proud people of Wales who woke up today to discover that they have a new mountain.More than 7,000 satellite readings have persuaded the Ordnance Survey that Mynydd Graig Goch in Snowdonia has been wrongly recorded as a mere hill for more than a century.The difference is just 30 inches in rock and earth, but an enormous leap in terms of linguistics and status. Now reclassified as standing six inches over 2,000ft (609 metres), instead of the previous official height of 1,998ft, the craggy outcrop between Porthmadog and the Lleyn peninsular has become Wales' 190th official mountain.
Hours of taking measurements in wind and rain have paid off for the proud people of Wales who woke up today to discover that they have a new mountain.
More than 7,000 satellite readings have persuaded the Ordnance Survey that Mynydd Graig Goch in Snowdonia has been wrongly recorded as a mere hill for more than a century.
The difference is just 30 inches in rock and earth, but an enormous leap in terms of linguistics and status. Now reclassified as standing six inches over 2,000ft (609 metres), instead of the previous official height of 1,998ft, the craggy outcrop between Porthmadog and the Lleyn peninsular has become Wales' 190th official mountain.
Life imitates art.
"We're very pleased to have proved that Mynydd Graig Goch is a mountain and not a hill. The Ordnance Survey has agreed to update its maps on the internet straight away."Paper maps will be corrected on the next print run, in a real-life rerun of the 1995 film The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain. Set in 1917 and starring Hugh Grant as a government cartographer, the comedy describes how Welsh villagers ingeniously challenge a proposed downgrading of their local landmark from a mountain to a hill.
"We're very pleased to have proved that Mynydd Graig Goch is a mountain and not a hill. The Ordnance Survey has agreed to update its maps on the internet straight away."
Paper maps will be corrected on the next print run, in a real-life rerun of the 1995 film The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain. Set in 1917 and starring Hugh Grant as a government cartographer, the comedy describes how Welsh villagers ingeniously challenge a proposed downgrading of their local landmark from a mountain to a hill.
