Hayford Road

[DutchGuard]

A few years ago when I started drawing lines on the dynmap I was doing research into the main named routes of Westeros; Kingsroad, Goldroad, Roseroad etc. I thought I had got them all when I came across Hayford road; it is mentioned just once in ASoS Ch 22 Arya by Tom Sevenstrings as they reach the Lady of the Leaves.

Three days later, as they rode through a yellow wood, Jack-Be-Lucky unslung his horn and blew a signal, a different one than before. The sounds had scarcely died away when rope ladders unrolled from the limbs of trees. “Hobble the horses and up we go,” said Tom, half singing the words. They climbed to a hidden village in the upper branches, a maze of rope walkways and little moss-covered houses concealed behind walls of red and gold, and were taken to the Lady of the Leaves, a stick-thin white-haired woman dressed in roughspun. “We cannot stay here much longer, with autumn on us,” she told them. “A dozen wolves went down the Hayford road nine days past, hunting. If they’d chanced to look up they might have seen us.”

I thought this was curious because Arya and company are nowhere near Hayford at this point, this being a place near King's Landing. I guessed, then, that there had to be some kind of road passing through this area from Hayford, and looking at the map, it seems likely that this is a road connecting Riverrun and Hayford (by extension, King's Landing). Anyway, as we don't already have a road connecting KL and Riverrun, I thought it made sense to make this it.

As a side note, I think this is the road Yoren wants to take after the incident with the gold cloaks at the inn to get to the west shoreline of the God's Eye, but is stopped from doing so when he comes across the burned bridge to the south of the lake.

I've never been exactly sure about how this road is routed through the Riverlands, but today I gave it a second attempt using mostly existing roads. This new line passes Willow Wood and Acorn Hall en route to Riverrun. It also crosses the Blackwater Rush near the headwaters and watershed coming out of (what I think should be called) the Donnelwood.

The present route may need further adjustment, and when finally decided it needs some fine tuning along its length to get a semi-consistent width (such as the parts through Willow Wood). Also, there is a short section between Sallydance and Riverrun which will eventually need to be made, presumably as part of the Riverrun server build project.

The route is below in purple. You can see it on the dynmap by turning on the "Roads" layer. If you have any suggestions please leave them below.