Coity Mountain (also spelled ''Coety Mountain'', Welsh: ''Mynydd Coety'') is a flat-topped

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

in the South Wales Valleys, between

Blaenavon Blaenavon ( cy, Blaenafon) is a town and community in Torfaen county borough, Wales, high on a hillside on the source of the Afon Lwyd. It is within the boundaries of the historic county of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent. Th ...

and

Abertillery Abertillery (; cy, Abertyleri) is a town and a community of the Ebbw Fach valley in the historic county of Monmouthshire, Wales. Following local government reorganisation it became part of the Blaenau Gwent County Borough administrative area ...

. The highest points of both

Torfaen Torfaen (; cy, Torfaen ) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. Torfaen is bordered by the county of Monmouthshire to the east, the city of Newport to the south, and the county boroughs of Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent to the south-w ...

and Blaenau Gwent

unitary authorities A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

are at the summit of Coity Mountain. The summit is also known as Twyn Ffynhonnau Goerion. Some to the southeast lies a major subsidiary top of the hill, Mynydd Varteg Fawr (549m) at the southeastern end of whose broad ridge is a

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they a ...

at 544m. A few hundred metres to the southeast of this summit is a memorial known as the "Dog Stone" which commemorates ''Carlo the Red Setter'', a dog shot accidentally by his master while hunting on the 12 August 1864. Co-ordinates for the Dog Stone 51.45'15.58N 3.05'08.81W. Other notable tops include those of Mulfran (524m) ( Welsh for ''cormorant'', pronounced 'mill-vran') which overlooks the town of Brynmawr and Mynydd James immediately east of the town of

Blaina Blaina ( cy, Blaenau ) is a small town, situated deep within the South Wales Valleys between Brynmawr and Abertillery in the unitary authority of Blaenau Gwent, ancient parish of Aberystruth, preserved county of Gwent and historic county o ...

. Much of the mountain, including the summit is included in the

Blaenavon Industrial Landscape Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, in and around Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales, was inscribed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The Blaenavon Ironworks, now a museum, was a major centre of iron production using locally mined or quarried iron ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

, and a labyrinth of

coal mines Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...

, including Big Pit National Coal Museum lies under the mountain.

Geology

The hill is formed from a succession of Carboniferous age

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

s and mudstones, notably the

Pennant Sandstone The Pennant Measures is the traditional name for a sequence of sedimentary rocks of the South Wales Coalfield. They were also referred to as the Upper Coal Measures and assigned to the Westphalian 'C' and Westphalian 'D' stages of the Carbonife ...

, outcrops of which occur in places around the margins of its plateau-like top. The stone has been worked in places for building stone and a number of abandoned small quarries may be seen. The lower slopes of the hill are in the Coal Measures and have been intensively worked for coal with considerable areas of landscaped opencast workings evident along its northeastern side. Coity Mountain is likely to have stood above the ice during the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

as, unlike in surrounding valleys, there is no

glacial till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

to be found on its slopes. There are areas of

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...

and accumulations of head and many small landslips adorn its steeper slopes.

Access

A number of public rights of way cross the mountain though none traverse the summit. There are in addition a number of vehicular tracks and smaller paths which run both around its flanks and along its broad main ridge. Most of the mountain is access land under the

Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (c. 37), known informally as the CRoW Act or "Right to Roam" Act is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament affecting England and Wales which came into force on 30 November 2000. Right to roam The Act imp ...

and can be freely traversed on foot.

External links

* Coity Mountain is at coordinates
www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Coity Mountain and surrounding area

References

{{Reflist Marilyns of Wales Mountains and hills of Blaenau Gwent Mountains and hills of Torfaen