The Boys' Brigade Mountaineering Club

Carnedd Gwenllian (formerly Garnedd Uchaf or Y Garnedd Uchaf or Carnedd Uchaf) is the 12th highest mountain in Wales. It has a prominence of 33 m and the limit for a Hewitt is 30 m, so it is now regarded as a Furth. Anyone who did the 3000s when there were only 14, will probably have summited it, as it is en route between two of the others.

It was renamed in 2009 after lobbying by the Princess Gwenllian Society.

See its entries on Walkhighlands or Wikipedia or view it from above on Google Earth.

Carnedd in the context of a mountain name is best translated as Cairn. So, Carnedd Gwenllian means Gwenllian's Cairn. Princess Gwenllian (also known as Gwenllian ferch (daughter of) Llywellyn and Gwenllian of Wales) was the only child of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (Llewelyn the Last) and has a sad story. She was only 6 months old when her father was killed and she was then placed under the guardianship of her uncle (Dafydd ap Grufudd). He went into hiding, but was captured, along with his family, by the English when she was one year old and was executed. King Edward I did not want Gwenllian to marry and risk giving birth to a baby who might then claim the Prince of Wales title, so he dispatched her to Sempringham Priory in Lincolnshire where whe was confined until she died aged 55. See Virtual History for her family tree.

Garnedd is the same Welsh word as Carnedd (the C being soft-mutated to a G because it followed an often lost definite article) and Uchaf means Highest. So Garnedd Uchaf means Highest Cairn. The peaks either side of it are higher, so perhaps it once had a higher cairn.