Cefn Hirgoed

Cefn Hirgoed
Cefn Hirgoed
Highest point
Elevation	142 m (466 ft)
Coordinates	51°32′10″N3°31′55″W / 51.536°N 3.532°W Coordinates: 51°32′10″N3°31′55″W / 51.536°N 3.532°W
Naming
Translation	back (ridge) of the long wood(Welsh)
Geography
Location	Bridgend, Wales
OS grid	SS939829
Topo map	OS Landranger 170 / Explorer 151

Last updated March 18, 2019

Cefn Hirgoed is a ridge in Bridgend county borough in South Wales. The ridge extends for about 5km east from the village of Sarn just north of Bridgend to Pen-prysg north of Pencoed. At the point where it reaches its highest elevation of 142m, are a couple of covered reservoirs. Towards the west the M4 motorway runs along the hill’s southern edge.

A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from narrow top on either side.The line along the crest formed by the highest points, with the terrain dropping down on either side, is called the ridgeline. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size.

Bridgend is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, 20 miles (32 km) west of the capital Cardiff and 20 miles (32 km) east of Swansea. The river crossed by the original bridge, which gave the town its name, is the River Ogmore, but the River Ewenny also passes to the south of the town.

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km² (8,023 sq mi). Wales has over 1,680 miles (2,700 km) of coastline and is largely mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon, its highest summit. The country lies within the north temperate zone and has a changeable, maritime climate.

Geology

The hill is formed from relatively hard-wearing sandstones of the South Wales Lower Coal Measures with mudstone layers between the sandstones which here dip steeply northwards into the South Wales Coalfield syncline.^[1]

Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized mineral particles or rock fragments.

Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.063 millimetres (0.0025 in) with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time, the platy clay minerals may become aligned, with the appearance of fissility or parallel layering. This finely bedded material that splits readily into thin layers is called shale, as distinct from mudstone. The lack of fissility or layering in mudstone may be due to either original texture or the disruption of layering by burrowing organisms in the sediment prior to lithification. Mud rocks such as mudstone and shale account for some 65% of all sedimentary rocks. Mudstone looks like hardened clay and, depending upon the circumstances under which it was formed, it may show cracks or fissures, like a sun-baked clay deposit.

The South Wales Coalfield is a large region of south Wales that is rich in coal deposits, especially the South Wales Valleys. It supported a large part, but not all, of the coal industry in Wales.

Access

Almost the entire hill is mapped as open country under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 giving a general right of access on foot to the public. It and the adjacent Hirwaun Common are also crossed by several public footpaths. A couple of minor roads, Heol Spencer and Heol Llan/Heol-Las, run north-south across the ridge.^[2]

The freedom to roam, or "everyman's right", is the general public's right to access certain public or privately owned land, lakes, and rivers for recreation and exercise. The right is sometimes called the right of public access to the wilderness or the "right to roam".

The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, known as the CRoW Act is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament affecting England and Wales which came into force on 30 November 2000.

In England and Wales, other than in the 12 Inner London Boroughs and the City of London, the "right of way" refers to paths on which the public have a legally protected right to pass and re-pass. The law in England and Wales differs from Scots law in that rights of way exist only where they are so designated, whereas in Scotland any route that meets certain conditions is defined as a right of way, and in addition there is a general presumption of access to the countryside. Private rights of way or easements also exist.

Related Research Articles

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The geology of Wales is complex and varied; its study has been of considerable historical significance in the development of geology as a science. All geological periods from the Cryogenian to the Jurassic are represented at outcrops, whilst younger sedimentary rocks occur beneath the seas immediately off the Welsh coast. The effects of two mountain-building episodes have left their mark in the faulting and folding of much of the Palaeozoic rock sequence. Superficial deposits and landforms created during the present Quaternary period by water and ice are also plentiful and contribute to a remarkably diverse landscape of mountains, hills and coastal plains.

Fan Fawr is a mountain in the Fforest Fawr section of the Brecon Beacons National Park, in Powys, Wales and over 734 m (2,408 ft) high.

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The Sherwood Sandstone Group is a Triassic lithostratigraphic group which is widespread in Britain, especially in the English Midlands. The name is derived from Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire which is underlain by rocks of this age. It has economic importance as the reservoir of the Morecambe Bay gas field, the second largest gas field in the UK.

Coity Higher is a community in Bridgend County Borough, south Wales. It contains the north western suburbs of Bridgend which includes the villages of Litchard and Coity. The southern boundary of the community adjoins the community of Brackla, while the northern border is defined by the M4 motorway. Notable buildings and landmarks within the community include Coity Castle, Parc Prison, the 14th century Church of St Mary, Pendre Hospital, Ty Mawr house and a burial chamber. At the 2001 census, the community's population was 835, being re-measured at 6,078 t the 2011 Census.

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Cefn Eglwysilan is a hill in South Wales, the twin 382m summits of which lie 2 km east of Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf county borough. Its eastern side lies within the community of Aber Valley in Caerphilly county borough. Like neighbouring Mynydd Eglwysilan, the hill is named after the hamlet of Eglwysilan, the church here being dedicated to an obscure saint Ilan. A wireless transmission station is sited on the more northerly of the two summits. The southerly one is crowned by a trig point.

Mynydd y Gaer is a 295-metre-high hill in Bridgend County Borough in South Wales. The summit is crowned by a trig point.

Cefn Gwyngul is a long broad ridge to the east of the Rhondda Fach valley in Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough in South Wales. Its 470m high summit is marked by an ancient cairn known as Carn-y-Pigwn, on which is a more recent trig point. Much of the hill is cloaked by modern forestry plantations though its southwestern flank between Porth and Ferndale has not been coniferised. The earthworks of a Roman camp remain on the ridge at OS grid ref ST 002982.

Mynydd William Meyrick is a 535-metre-high hill straddling the boundary of Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taf county boroughs between the valley of the Rhondda Fawr and Ogmore Valley in South Wales. It takes the form of a broad northwest-southeast ridge with numerous broad shoulders extending to the east, south and west, each of which have different names and some of which constitute minor tops. Listed clockwise from the north these are; Mynydd Maendy, Mynydd Ton, Mynydd Bwllfa, Mynydd Pwllyrhebog, Mynydd Maes-teg, Mynydd y Gwair and Mynydd yr Aber. The summit of the entire massif is often referred to as Mynydd Ton. Its western sides are open moorland whilst its eastern sides have been afforested by the Forestry Commission.

References

↑ British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map sheet 248 Pontypridd & accompanying memoir
↑ Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale Explorer map 151 Cardiff & Bridgend

External links

images of Cefn Hirgoed and area on Geograph website

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[1] British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map sheet 248 Pontypridd & accompanying memoir

[2] Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale Explorer map 151 Cardiff & Bridgend