![\"Tomen-y-Mur](\"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Tomen-y-Mur-and-Llyn-Trawsfynydd.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe next section of the Traws Eryri took us winding through small back roads, across the main Blaenau road, through Bont Newydd and then onto the B4391 and the long climb to the Cwm Cynfal viewpoint. I\u2019d ridden down here once before and, thanks to the weather, it had been one of the most miserable hours or so I\u2019ve spent on a bike. (Read about that ride here<\/a>.) Today wasn\u2019t the nicest of days either, as it was now raining steadily, but it was much better than the last time I was here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We stopped to take a look at the waterfalls and then turned off the road onto the smaller road towards Penmachno. Again, I\u2019ve driven along here loads of times. It\u2019s a lovely, remote, hilltop road that weaves its way through endless bog. It\u2019s a fairly featureless landscape, bleak and barren at the best of times, but beautiful in its own right. The kind of place I love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, it was a little dreary, but the going was easy and the rain was now on and off. I still wasn\u2019t feeling great, so after the long climb, I continued to take it easy as we made our way across the moorland road. We had a big descent coming up, all the way down through the valley to Penmachno. It was fast at times, but we were being a little cautious as it was damp and slippery in places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once at the bottom, the weather improved. We were out of the clouds, and there were even some hints of blue sky. By the time we reached the Penmachno trailhead, the sun was out, so we made a little detour into Penmachno itself, where we bought some lunch supplies and sat in the sun beside the church with a coffee. This gave us a chance to dry out a little, so we soon packed our waterproofs into our bags and headed back to the trailhead. Penmachno is a trail centre that I\u2019ve ridden a few times, but today we would be doing a large loop around it on forest roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems a shame that the Traws Eryri doesn\u2019t use any of the singletrack at the trail centres it passes through, but I guess that\u2019s to keep the route accessible to more people and suitable for gravel bikes. The option is there, of course, to take in some of the more interesting trail-centre sections if you want. Had I been feeling better, we probably would have done just that. However, it had been a wet day, Penmachno is always wet underfoot at the best of times, and I was still feeling out-of-sorts. I didn\u2019t feel like making too many detours or adding extra miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, we followed the official Traws Eryri route up a long fire-road climb and then out onto a large loop around the forests. It started raining again, so our jackets went back on. Eventually, we looped around until we were pretty much above the village of Penmachno again. To be honest, this loop seemed a little pointless. It gave us some views back up the valley we had cycled down earlier, but that was about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We continued on around the contours of the hill until views opened up to the north and west. Here, we could see the unmistakable outline of Moel Siabod, with Yr Wyddfa to its left and the peak of Tryfan poking out to the right. It was lunchtime and the sun was shining, so we decided to stop for lunch with a view. We sat on the floor eating our sandwiches, but suddenly the temperature seemed to plummet. Shivering, we quickly packed up and headed off down the hill, trying to warm up.<\/p>\n\n\n At the bottom of the hill, we came across Ty Mawr Wybrnant, a National Trust property that is the birthplace of Bishop William Morgan, the first person to translate the whole Bible into Welsh. We stopped briefly to see if the toilets were open, but everything was closed. The property was nicely sheltered, with well-kept grounds, and it was lovely and warm in the sunshine. It would have been the perfect place to stop for lunch, and there was even a picnic table. We should have been more patient rather than stopping at the top of the hill, where it was cold and windy!<\/p>\n\n\n I was still feeling ill and weak and could really have done with a toilet, but there wasn\u2019t much I could do about it here, so on we went. We followed a country lane before getting off our bikes to push up a steep, rocky, slippery bridle path. This took us onto a nice descent, including a short section of singletrack, down to the Afon Ledr and the perfectly situated Tan-aeldroch campsite. It looked like a lovely campsite beside the river, quiet today but no doubt a little busier in the summer. Signs mentioned a sauna on site and, better still (for me at least), there were toilets!<\/p>\n\n\n\n We stopped for a while, and I made use of the facilities. Then it was time to push ever onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We joined the road for a while towards Dolwyddelan and took an odd little path that led us first to a small back road, which climbed steeply up the hillside on tarmac, before joining the rocky surface of Sarn Helen once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This section was really nice. The sun was shining, the Roman road was fun to cycle along and, although it was a bit of a climb, the gradient was fairly gentle. It took us all the way to Llyn Elsi, a scenic mountain lake and working reservoir high above the village of Betws-y-Coed. Despite being so close to Betws-y-Coed, I\u2019d never been here before. We stopped for a while at the viewpoint and memorial. There were more people here than we had seen elsewhere, and had we not been quite so close to our end point, we might have lingered longer. But with the end of the day\u2019s ride in sight, and me still feeling unwell, we soon set off for Betws-y-Coed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We actually took the wrong track for a short distance. Only a few hundred metres, but enough for Mike to fall off two or three times! At least this time they were only minor spills, with a soft landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n