It looks like a scene from a Hollywood disaster movie, but this is how foresters solved the problem of how to reach an inaccessible woodland deep in the heart of the Snowdonia National Park.
Forestry Commission Wales engineers used dynamite to blast a path into Ty’n y Cwm forest near Dolwyddelan so that foresters can manage the land and improve the special landscape character of the area.
Traditional mechanical road-building methods were ineffective against the impenetrable rock that had denied access to the forest for years.
So engineers resorted to the unusual step of using dynamite to clear a route so that forest machines can begin the task of restructuring the woodland and improving it as a landscape feature.
Engineers also wanted to ensure the new road fitted in to the surrounding landscape and wasn’t too obvious to the eye from the top of Moel Siabod, a popular mountain in the national park.
Gavin Queen, FC Wales country civil engineer, said, “As well as the nature of the terrain, one of the main issues was finding a suitable line through the open land area belonging to a neighbouring private landowner.”
Obtaining planning permission tok a considerable amount of time, mainly due to the complexity of the issues involved and the number of factors to be considered, said Gavin.
Permission even had to be obtained to cross a little-used track linking Dolwyddelan and Penmachno because technically it is classed as a public road.
However, the new road would allow FC Wales to improve the landscape of this area within the national park.
“The new road, once complete, will enable FC Wales to restructure the woodland in a manner that is more in keeping with the landscape, to be better adapted to survive the issues associated with climate change and to allow better access, both for us and the public, to an area hitherto inaccessible.”
The 30-hectare area of forest, which is mostly of Sitka spruce with some Scots pine, will be cleared and re-planted as a mixed woodland with Sitka spruce, Japanese larch and Scots pine.
