:Cnicht
{{Short description|Mountain in Snowdonia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox mountain
| name = Cnicht
| photo = Cnicht from west.jpg
| photo_caption = Cnicht from the south-west
| elevation_m = 689
| elevation_ref =
| prominence_m = 104
| listing = HuMP, Hewitt, Nuttall
| translation = knight
| language = Welsh
| pronunciation = {{IPA|cy|ˈknɪχt}}
| location = Gwynedd, Wales
| range = Moelwynion
| grid_ref_UK = SH645466
| topo = OS Landranger 115
}}
{{GB summits start}}
{{GB summits entry
|Name=Cnicht
|Height=689 m (2,260 ft)
|Status=Nuttall}}
{{end}}
Cnicht is a mountain in Snowdonia which forms part of the Moelwynion mountain range.Marsh, Terry. The Summits of Snowdonia (London: Robert Hale, 1984)Marsh, Terry. The Mountains of Wales (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985)Nuttall, John & Anne (1999). The Mountains of England & Wales - Volume 1: Wales (2nd edition ed.). Milnthorpe, Cumbria: Cicerone. {{ISBN|1-85284-304-7}}.
Features
Its appearance when viewed from the south-west, i.e., from the direction of Porthmadog, has earned it the sobriquet the "Matterhorn of Wales", albeit being 3,789 metres lower. In reality, Cnicht is a long ridge and, at 689 m, is the fifth-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 northwest.
Although regarded by some as a mountain in its own right, Cnicht does not have the required 150m of topographic prominence to be classed as a Marilyn.
Toponymy
The mountain's name is thought to derive from the English surname Knight, the name of a family who were formerly merchants in Caernarfon. When borrowed into Welsh, the consonants represented by {{angbr|K}} and {{angbr|gh}} were still{{When|reason=Was this Old or Middle English, maybe?|date=December 2023}} pronounced in English, and these are retained in the Welsh name Cnicht as {{angbr|C}} (/k/) and {{angbr|ch}} (/χ/).Owen, Hywel Wyn and Richard Morgan, Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales (Llandysul: Gomer, 2007), p. 91.
In fiction
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.{{cite book |title=Patrick O'Brian: The making of the novelist |last=Tolstoy |first=Nikolai |author-link=Nikolai Tolstoy |year=2005 |publisher=Arrow |location=London |isbn=0-09-941584-4 |pages=337–339 }} O'Brian and his wife lived in the valley between 1946 and 1949.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Cnicht}}
{{Portal|Wales|mountains}}
- [https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=2797932 www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Cnicht and surrounding area]
{{coord|53|0|1.26|N|4|1|7.66|W|display=title}}
Category:Mountains and hills of Snowdonia
Category:Mountains and hills of Gwynedd
{{Gwynedd-geo-stub}}