Traws Eryri - The missing bits

In  part one , we described some of the background of Traws Eryi and the short missing links that currently prevent it fulfilling its potential - and how that fits in with our campaigning work seeking  reform  of access legislation for off-road cycling and mountain biking. As we explained there, we want to educate riders about some of the issues, and set out the evidence to demonstrate the need for change in access legislation in Wales.

From Abergwyngregwyn on the north coast, the published route has had to skirt along the A55 for a few hundred yards in order to link across to Llanfairfechan. We think that's a real shame, as we wanted to take you back into the hills instead.. but again, the often confusing and sometimes plain ridiculous access laws prevent us doing the logical thing.

The route we wanted to use is commonly known as the 'Roman Road'. It heads further inland, up a big climb (with magnificent views) that would take riders up a well-surfaced moorland road, passing between a myriad of Neolithic stone circles, standing stones and ancient burial tombs, before dropping down on an existing bridleway into Llanfairfechan.

This route would also offer a complete alternative finish, heading over the Bwlych-y-Ddeufaen (pass of the two stones), and past Rowen Youth Hostel (recently put  up for sale ) and potentially linking riders direct back to Betwys-y-Coed for a circular route.

But we can’t, because - quite remarkably - this route has no established right of access for cyclists. Somehow, the route of the Roman road (from which the line of the more modern track, surfaced to allow access for pylon maintenance, deviates slightly) has ended up on the definitive map as a public footpath. So there is only a recorded right of way for walking - although somewhat paradoxically, most of the route is also legal for equestrians too, as it’s recorded as a Section 193 common where horse riders can roam anywhere. Where the road crosses the parish boundary between Llanfairfechan and Caerhun, the route changes from public footpath into unclassified county road.

As with our previous 'missing links', we could see that the modern route, and recorded public footpath, bore all the marks of a much older route, requiring a little more digging through the archives to assess whether we could demonstrate that historic unrecorded rights likely existed.

By this point, we had already gained a pretty good understanding of some of the evidence available, so once again tuned to the weighty 'An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Caernarfonshire', published in 1956 on behalf of the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire.

But of course we couldn’t just stop there. We needed to see if we could find some contemporary evidence supporting this interpretation. Starting with the 1794 Cary map - the route through Bwlych y Ddeufaen can be easily identified, but running to Llanfairfechan rather than Abergwngregyn.

However, the alternative finish, the route we want, does clearly show on the Evans map, produced around the same time, and on the later Greenwood map:

And by ar round 1841, with the publication of the first series Ordance Survey map, we can see much more detail:

So, again we have a gradual development in the quality of the available mapping, with a clear and consistent display of the existence of a road leading through the Bwlych y Ddeufaen. Now to back the mapping up with some contemporary evidence: back to the 19th century guidebooks we go…

Murray’s Handbook for travellers mentions the route, along with some of the history - confirming the long-held view that the road was (at least) Roman in origin, alongside mentioning the existence of erect stones and a cromlech (a megalithic construction made of large stone blocks) - there, we have it, that’s clearly pointing towards something approximating the modern route. Jenkinson's practical guide, on the other hand, is even more unequivocal. It specifically mentions the route being used by drivers, and again confirms discussion of the route as a Roman Road. So, now we have both maps and contemporary documentary discussion of the route as an old road, despite not being recorded on either the list of streets or the definitive map. It seems remarkable that it’s been missed off for all this time, without anyone doing anything to correct it.

And that’s when we had a real breakthrough. Digging away through the online archives, we found a mention of the route as having been turnpiked in the 18th Century. Turnpiking was the historical equivalent of PFI (private finance initiative): it allowed private companies to take over existing (or build new) public roads, with powers to collect road  tolls  to pay for building and maintaining the route.

Each new turnpike company was normally founded by a specific parliamentary act - and if we could get a copy of that we would have really strong evidence of the route being a public road. An act of Parliament in 1878 meant that most turnpike roads were automatically adopted as ‘main roads’, so that if a route can be shown to have been a turnpike road, and no stopping up order exists, it will almost certainly still carry carriageway rights. Off to the parliamentary archives we went - and look what we found:

We also discovered, through our research, that it seems that these repairs were never fully completed. The new roads around the coast seemed to make this route somewhat redundant. Some questions still remain, but it’s important that this was an act for widening and repairing the existing road through Bwlych y Ddeufaen rather than building a new one - it lends real credence to the fact that this had always been accepted to be a public road.

So, once again, we’ve managed to collate evidence from a number of entirely independent sources that consistently show the existence of a substantial route from Aber, and through the Bwlych y Ddeufaen - and applied for a Definitive Map Modification Order on that basis. As with part one, how long it takes to process the application is out of our hands. Under-resourced council rights of way departments have, on average, a fifteen year backlog of applications to go through.

But again, we’ll remind everyone of what we said about some of the historic ‘ lost ways ’ on the West Kernow Way: the role of the definitive map is only to record public rights of way, their underlying legal status exists independently of the map. Even then, the recording of any particular route on the maps doesn't erase any unrecorded, higher rights.

We believe it’s not really practical or fair to ask the public to wait fifteen or more years for the map to be corrected - so we believe that where strong historic evidence of the existence of a public right of way for bikes and horses exists, it is right for us to place that evidence in the public domain so that people can be educated about these issues, and make an informed choice.

We do have a couple of other short missing sections of Traws Eyryi to resolve in order to make it fulfil its potential fully, but these were the two biggest stand-out anomalies on the route, and both will add real value - both through the scenery and heritage they bring riders close to, and by cutting out significant sections of road, which is always a plus.

In the meantime, if you want to learn a little more about some of the historic routes of Wales, and how to read these aspects of the landscape, then check out the video below - and perhaps next time someone talks about developing routes, you can point them to these articles to show the research we do to create these routes. It really is a bit more than just drawing lines on a map.