Garnedd Ugain

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Garnedd Ugain
Caernarfonshire
Garnedd Ugain - geograph.org.uk - 1018694.jpg
Garnedd Ugain
Range: Snowdonia
Summit: 3,494 feet SH610551
53°4’30"N, 4°4’35"W

Garnedd Ugain, sometimes named Crib y Ddysgl, is a mountain in Snowdonia, in Caernarfonshire, that forms part of the Snowdon Horseshoe. It is the second highest peak in Wales, and indeed the second highest mountain in Great Britain south of the Highlands. Its summit is about half a mile north of Snowdon itself.

Name of the mountain

Both "Garnedd Ugain" and "Crib y Ddysgl" appear on the Ordnance Survey's maps of the area, though the name Crib Y Ddysgl might better be attributed to the east ridge [1] whilst the summit is "Garnedd Ugain" or "Carnedd Ugain".

"Carnedd Ugain" is Welsh for "Cairn of the Twenty" (or with a definite article, Y Garnedd Ugain). A romantic suggestion links this to a Roman legion based in Segontium, the XX Legion. The Welsh Mountaineering Club suggest that the name could be a corruption of Carnedd Wgon, and so named after Prince Wgon of whom Dafydd ap Gwilym sang, or after the 13th-century poet Gwgon Brydydd.[2]

"Crib y Ddysgl" means "ridge of the dish". Alan Dawson used this name for the peak rather than the ridge when listing it as a "Hewitt", whence the name has caught on.

References

  1. Steve Ashton (1992). Scrambles in Snowdonia. Cicerone Press. ISBN 1-85284-088-9. 
  2. [1] Clwb Mynyddau Cymru: Carnedd Ugain]