Fachwen to Brynrefail Footpath
GPX and Map Downloads 31st July 2026
Fachwen to Brynrefail GPX
Ordinance Survey Map XVI.NE 1901
The road to our home on Fachwen has been closed to all traffic at the bottom of Fachwen Hill. Access is now from the top of the hill near Dinorwig. This is for the whole of 2025 we believe. There is no through access to people by car, bike or on foot at the bottom of the hill. We now live on a cul-de-sac. Quite pleasant to have very little traffic really, nice a quiet most of the time. However - the extra travel time is not very good, by car of by road-bike!
For people wanting to walk around Llyn Padarn the only alternative to bypass this small section is to use a footpath that starts about 1km from the bottom of the hill and leads to Brynrefail. It's possible to walk it either way of course, but we only encounter those who fail to go down the hill.
We are finding that some visitors to the area wanting to walk around the lake are not aware of this alternate path and are failing to complete their route around the lake. We see the ones who limp past our house having been all the way to the bottom of the hill and are reluctantly having to retrace their steps. They often ask us what can they do next. Many seem not to be able to follow the signs for the path either.
The path is not too tricky really, but there are many junctions where if you take the wrong one you will not find Brynrefail very quickly at all.
To try and help I've created a GPX track of the path ready to download and use on any mapping app you may have on your phone. You can also download a JPEG image of a map (from 1901) where I clearly marked the route too.