MAKING SENSE OF WELSH NAMES

Regular walking visitors to Wales will have heard the jokes about the place on the signposts that nobody ever finds.

All Welsh paths lead to Llwybr Cyhoeddus. Like the many visitors who are still looking for this puzzling destination you will be pleased to learn that the unpronounceable words are simply Welsh for public footpath!

You don’t have to learn Welsh to enjoy your walks in Wales but the jokes about Llwybr Cyhoeddus illustrates the value of even a simple understanding of an unfamiliar language.

When walking in wild and remote places it is essential to know what kind of terrain you will encounter. The Ordnance Survey maps are excellent guides but you still have to cope with the Welsh words. An understanding of just a handful paint a word picture of what the map is trying to show.

The most well known mountaineering term is cwm, the word Wales gave to Himalayan exploration. Many know that llyn means a lake and afon a river. Craig needs little exploration – everyone knows the danger of taking a short cut over a craig!

Many place names in Wales are made up of groups of little descriptive words and give a clear picture of the location – if you know the code. The value of being able to create and image of a place from its name alone is enormous. A name with bont or pont in it will tell you there is a bridge there. If it contains the word fawr it will be a big community. Fach will mean small. A mountain or moorland will probably be called mynydd. Add the word moel and it will be a bare mountain. Braich will indicate a ridge or spur and goch will suggest that the mountain has a red complexion.

The maes in Maesglasau, a mountain in the Dovey Hills near Dinas Mawddwy, tells us to expect a field or plain. Glas suggests blue or green, so we envisage a grassy plateau. A crest of Maesglasau is called Maen Du. Maen means stone and du means black, and that’s an exact description of this pinnacle. The Dinas in Dinas Mawddwy lets us know that this was a hill fortress.

If we know that allt means wooded hill and fawr means big we have a good idea what to expect of a mountain of that name in the Moelwyn range. A word of caution, though. It is possible that features that gave a place a name no longer exist. Woodlands, for example, may have vanished. And you could visit a village with eglwys in the title and fail to find a church. I have been to a place in the hills marked Hafod on the map and found not a trace of a house.

Mountains, rivers, waterfalls and valleys, however, are more permanent so the various words on the map that suggest these features can be relied upon to tell you something about the terrain. Clogwyn for example warns of a precipice or steep crag, nant means a stream or brook, rhaedr is a waterfall and dyffryn indicates a valley.

We can play this fascinating game for hours. Get out an Ordnance Survey map of Wales, preferably one of a mountainous region, and have a go.