Authorized on 30 June 1862, the line linked Bala with Dolgellau, the county town of Merioneth, and on 12 July 1870 the Company was authorized to extend to Penmaepool, where it met a branch (opened on 3 July 1865) from Barmouth at an end-on junction. The line served nowhere of importance except at either end, and the GWR, which worked it from its opening on 4 August 1868, absorbed it on 23 July 1877. The Bala Lake Railway, a narrow gauge tourist line, opened throughout in 1976, uses the track-bed along the south shore of Lake Bala, and has headquarters at Llanuwchllyn.