Cnicht

Cnicht
Cnicht from the south-west
Elevation	689 m (2,260 ft)
Prominence	c. 104m
Listing	Marilyn, Hewitt, Nuttall
Translation	knight (Old English)
Pronunciation	English: /ˈknɪxt/
Location
Location	Gwynedd,  Wales
Range	Moelwynion
Topo map	OS Landranger 115
OS grid	SH645466

Listed summits of Cnicht
Name	Grid ref	Height	Status
Cnicht		689 m (2,260 ft)	Nuttall

Cnicht is a mountain in Snowdonia which forms part of the Moelwynion mountain range.^[1][2][3]

Its appearance when viewed from the south-west, i.e. from the direction of Porthmadog, has earned it the sobriquet the "Matterhorn of Wales". In reality Cnicht is a long ridge and, at 689 m, is the 5th highest peak in the Moelwynion mountain range. It can be easily ascended from Croesor, the village at its foot, or, with more difficulty, from Nant Gwynant to the north-west.

Although rightly regarded by most people as a mountain in its own right, there are compilers of lists who consider that it does not in fact have enough prominence to separate it from its parent Allt-fawr in spite of over 110m of re-ascent and a distance of more than 4 km. Hence it is not regarded as a Marilyn.

The mountain gets its name from the old English word 'knight', the silent 'k' being pronounced at that time. It is said that the shape of the mountain bears a similarity to a knight's helmet.

It appears as the "Saeth" in Patrick O'Brian's 1952 novel Three Bear Witness (published as Testimonies in the USA), which is set in a fictionalised version of Cwm Croesor.^[4] O'Brian and his wife lived in the valley between 1946 and 1949.

References

1. ^ Marsh, Terry. The Summits of Snowdonia (London: Robert Hale, 1984)
2. ^ Marsh, Terry. The Mountains of Wales (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985)
3. ^ Nuttall, John & Anne (1999). The Mountains of England & Wales - Volume 1: Wales (2nd edition ed.). Milnthorpe, Cumbria: Cicerone. ISBN 1-85284-304-7.
4. ^ Tolstoy, Nikolai (2005). Patrick O'Brian:The making of the novelist. London: Arrow. pp. 337–339. ISBN 0-0994-1584-4. 

External links

• www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Cnicht and surrounding area

Coordinates: 53°0′1.26″N 4°1′7.66″W / 53.00035°N 4.0187944°W / 53.00035; -4.0187944