Pont Scethin

Route Information

Stats: 13 miles and 2600 feet of ascent

OS Map:

Refreshments

Great little pub in village. Nearby Barmouth has a few more options. If you’re staying in Snowdonia, lots of little places to stop off and eat at.

Character

This is one of the classic routes for North Wales. It brings you long climbs on excellent hard packed tracks, with epic descents to make you grin all day long. This is a fantastic mountain route on old pack-horse trails, with rocky technical sections to test your handling. The route mixes wide tracks with narrow sections, rutted tracks and rock gardens, giving you a taste of everything, along with some superb views.


Route

1. Start from The Ysgethin Inn or the Car Park opposite and steady along residential road Llywn Ynn. At the end of this road it forks – take the fork around to the right and into the tree line.

2. There is a track in the trees running alongside the river – Afon Ysgethin ( keep the river on your right at this stage )

3. Approx 1/2 a mle along this track is a crossroads – go left and head towards Ffordd Gors and ride along this road for around another 1/2 mile, going through Corsygedol Farm, heading for Ffordd Ffridd Isa ( right turn 160m to farm ).

4.Pedal along the track through the trees and over the river,and further along the track for around 150m turn right and follow the track along the wall line for another 1 1/2 mile to Bwlch y Rhiwgyr, then continue for a further 3/4 mile, take a right and hit the double track. Go left on the double track towards the Forestry ( Cerrig y Cledd ). On this section there is a a fair bit of climbing (approx 2 miles) on loose track, with some parts maybe needing a bit of a walk due to the rocky terrain in places.

5. Keep the trees on your right and continue along until the double track turns to single track for a further mile, then take a sharp left. Then it’s uphill along single track following a wall line which should be on your left – though a gap in the walls and an old building on your right continue on with the wall on your left ( until 7 1/2 mile mark where you cross through the wall and it’s now on your right.

6. You’re going to climb for around 2 miles – but it’s worth it, across and over Braic, then downhill onto Pont Scethin at speed. At the bottom of the gulley cycle over an old stone bridge along singletrack until you hit solid double track again.

7. Stay on this double track all the way back to Ffordd Ffridd Isa and turn left. When you get to the buildings further along the track take a right turn into the trees and follow the track down longside the river back to the track that you began to the route on and onto the car park / Ysgethin Inn.

8. Cold wet one and something to eat.

click below for gpx file