Amateurs confirm Tal y Fan in Snowdonia is mountain

Three amateur surveyors have confirmed that a Welsh peak is the height needed to be classed as a mountain.

John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips scaled Tal y Fan, in Snowdonia, to check its summit was at least 2,000ft (609.6m).

Ordnance Survey confirmed their GPS finding of 609.98m (2,001ft), some 38cm (1ft 3in) above that needed to qualify for mountain status.

In 2008, the trio found that nearby Mynydd Graig Goch is 6in over 2,000ft.

Their efforts have similarities to the 1995 film The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.

It starred Hugh Grant as a cartographer who upset a Welsh community in 1917 by reclassifying its mountain as a hill.

However, in this latest instance, the friends have verified that Tal y Fan is indeed high enough to be called a mountain.

For the past eight years, they have combined their hobby of hill walking with an interest in science.

John Barnard and his friend used industrial-standard GPS equipment to take their measurements

Since investing in surveyor-grade GPS equipment, they have climbed every hill over 2,000ft in England and Wales to check their height.

Many summits in Wales were measured using a plane in 1950s and 60s, with an accuracy of only about 2m (6ft 6in).

By targeting summits on the borderline between that of a hill and that of a mountain, they have seen some moved from one category into another, such as Mynydd Graig Goch, also in Snowdonia.

Mr Barnard said: "It's just a hobby. It's a natural extension to the hill walking we do. We've probably surveyed something like 200 mountains or hills over the past eight years. "

The GPS equipment has to be on top of the mountain or hill for several hours to collect the data and then there is a few more hours of computer work to have the data analysed.

The three men work closely with the Ordnance Survey, which checks their calculations and says it will change the maps if summits turn out to be higher or lower than first thought.

Mark Greaves, who met the group on Tal y Fan to rubber-stamp their findings, said: "If it means a change in the maps then we'll apply that change."