Traws Eryri was a pretty big undertaking. The original idea started some years ago, with a discussion about the growth of trail centres and how they interacted with wider issues about access reform in Wales, as  promised  by the Welsh Government in 2019.

Why couldn't we go that way? It's not for want of trying. In fact, having been unable to secure agreement from the landowners, we have just submitted a formal application for a public right of way along this route based on historic evidence. Below, we've collected the evidence to illustrate why we think that there is an unrecorded historic route between these two valleys.

So, there we have it then - proof that this was in fact an old road - and given the origin of this source, a definitive guide to the archeology of the region published by a Royal commission, we suggest this publication carries particular evidential weight above other published history guides.

And by 1838, the instillation of this new road shows in more maps, including a travellers guide for Wales:

A description of a journey in the book 'Handbook for travellers in North Wales' published by John Murray in 1861, describes the road from Ffestiniog to Penmachno, passing "the graves of the men of Ardudwy", the Roman Road at Sarn Helen, and Llyn Morwynion. It then describes the road as branching towards either Penmachno or Yspytty Ifan - this is fully consistent with the ‘new’ road previously discussed. However, the text also goes on to describe a shorter ‘mountain lane’ direct from Ffestiniog.

"...an ill defined path ascends the mountains by the quarry, and crosses direct to the Ffestiniog district"

From this point on, how long it takes to process the application is out of our hands. The process to record a route on the definitive map is complex and time consuming, and under-resourced council rights of way departments have such a backlog of applications that it would take an average of 15 years to process them all.