Ffestiniog area, Cwm Teigl to Cwm Penmachno

Heading generally north east on the Traws Eryri trail in the Ffestiniog/ Penmachno area the ‘official’ route uses the fast tarmac A and B class roads on which tbh I’d very much prefer not to ride because of the traffic. I’ve read that negotiations might be going on to get access over via The Snowdonia Slate Trail instead.

The official route misses out the seemingly obvious route north east from Llan Ffestiniog up Cwm teigl and down via Manod quarry into Cwm Penmachno. I know Cwm Teigl as far as the quarry at the top. I Know Cwm Penmachno. But I don’t know how rideable the link from the Manod Quarries to the Cwm Penmachno quarries is. It might be a good gravel trail but air photos seem to indicate that its a bit of a boggy morasse in places.

Has anyone got an first hand experience of the missing link please?

Ta in advance, Ambrose

Shows as a track on OS 25k map. Bing maps has the best detail for aerial photos usually.

That Manod quarry to Cwm Penmachno is super super boggy

some pics here from a fair few years ago

Day 2 – Penmachno to Coed-y-Brenin

I rode that track 5-6 years ago on a project linking up all the Welsh trail centres in a bike packing stylee (so I had a bar bag and a seat pack on the bike). It was fine after a couple of wet days heading up from Machynlleth. Interesting industrial ruins, very Ozymandian.

Thanks everyone, it looks like it’s possible then. I’ll be heading up from Ffestiniog and down to (Cwm) Penmachno so Tractionman’s slaty climb will be a descent.

Yep, tarmac up, off-road down. I did that as part of a day between the campsites below Mach CAT and at the end of the Penmachno road, via a route at CyB and the Sarn Helen.

Take it you haven’t seen the detailed articles their off-road team wrote explaining it?

https://www.cyclinguk.org/blog/traws-eryri-mysterious-missing-bits

@kevog, many thanks for that, I  haven’t seen it before. It’s a good read that pretty much sums up what I thought would be the case (in both instances) regarding access rights. The video content is useful too, especially the Manod area content. 👍🏼

Yeah, it shows the immense amount of work those guys must have put in to develop the route

shame they seem to have laid them off

Interesting, have been riding that track for over 30 years. A few years ago the muddy sections have been replaced by slate tracks. The Snowdonia  Slate trail runs through the area along the very same track so there must have been negotiations with the landowners.

Unable to post a link but search   llwybr llechi Eryri

Track is ridable however the incline is steep / but no problem for most MTB riders easy to pick up punchers lower down also.

Many thanks to bikesandboots for the Bing tip.

The second ‘missing bit’ offroad around llanfairfechan is worth doing, too. Just a high level double track through farmland and away from habitation. Bumped into a few users + farmer. Nobody seemed bothered about me riding there.

I rode a bit of that a couple of weeks ago on the way up to Drum.

In the past I used to be very conscientious about ROWs but nowadays I am much more sensible.