Craig y Llyn forms the headwall of a cwm, and it is to this that the word cadair (chair in Welsh) presumably refers.

In 1987 Bernard Wright, a rambler from Cheshire, was standing on Cadair Berwyn North Top (then said to be the highest mountain in Clwyd) when he noticed that a nearby peak appeared to be higher.

After first denying it, the cartographers at the Ordnance Survey finally admitted that Bernard had discovered a 'new mountain' at 830 metres above sea level.

Bernard's name for this peak was Craig Uchaf (highest rock) the topographical name fitting in well with those that the Welsh have been giving their landscape for centuries.

[5] Several other summits in the area are listed as Hewitts or Nuttalls, including Foel Wen ([ˈvɔil ˈwɛn], Welsh for white hill) and Mynydd Tarw ([ˈmɐnɨð ˈtæɾu], bull mountain).

The peak is the nearest high mountain to a significant fraction of the population of the English Midlands but sees far fewer walkers than equivalent summits in the Lake District and Snowdonia.