Pen yr Ole Wen - 978 m (3,209 ft)
Pen yr Ole Wen is the 7th highest mountain in Wales. It has a pyramidal classic mountain shape when viewed from the A5, but its summit is disappointingly broad and flat. The route up from the Ogwen Cottage is a steep slog and this route is not recommended for descent to the valley because of loose stones.
See its entries on Walkhighlands or Wikipedia or view it from above on Google Earth.
Pen, in Welsh, normally means Head, but it can also mean Top, Summit or Highest Point, which would probably a more appropriate translation for the name of a mountain and yr is the definite article (normally y but yr before a vowel). Historically, all the mountaineering literature said that Ole derived from the Welsh word Golau meaning Light (with the G dropped because of a soft mutation after the definite article). Wen comes from the Welsh word Gwen, being the feminine form of the adjective White (with the G dropped because of a soft mutation when it qualifies a feminine singular noun). But Golau is masculine! All the mountaineering literature therefore used to say that Pen yr Ole Wen meant Head of the White Light, which was grammatically incorect and didn't make a lot of sense either.
In 2004, John Nuttall (famous for his England & Wales mountain tables) gave a lecture in which he gave an alternative derivation of Ole, already well known in the academic community. He said that Ole came from Goleddf meaning Slope (again with a dropped G after the definite article). This noun can be either masculine or feminine, so it could be qualified with Wen This theory is now generally accepted and the best translation would appear to be Summit of the White Slope, with the White probably referring to snow.
Published on
