diff --git a/doc/changes/unreleased.md b/doc/changes/unreleased.md
index eaea2280..2e2efb37 100644
--- a/doc/changes/unreleased.md
+++ b/doc/changes/unreleased.md
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
     Added the PathLike protocol as described in the [design document](../design/bucketpath.rst).
     Extracted bucket interface into BucketLike protocol.
     Implemented PathLike for buckets based on BucketLike protocol.
+    Added a path factory function.
 
 
 ## Internal
diff --git a/exasol/bucketfs/_buckets.py b/exasol/bucketfs/_buckets.py
index 7aaba344..2f44eec3 100644
--- a/exasol/bucketfs/_buckets.py
+++ b/exasol/bucketfs/_buckets.py
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@
     Iterator,
     Protocol,
 )
+import os
+import errno
+from pathlib import Path
 
 import requests
 from requests import HTTPError
@@ -27,6 +30,12 @@ class BucketLike(Protocol):
     It is compatible with both on-premises an SaaS BucketFS systems.
     """
 
+    @property
+    def name(self) -> str:
+        """
+        Returns the bucket name.
+        """
+
     @property
     def files(self) -> Iterable[str]:
         """
@@ -223,6 +232,82 @@ def download(self, path: str, chunk_size: int = 8192) -> Iterable[ByteString]:
             yield from response.iter_content(chunk_size=chunk_size)
 
 
+class SaaSBucket:
+
+    def __init__(self, url: str, account_id: str, database_id: str, pat: str) -> None:
+        self._url = url
+        self._account_id = account_id
+        self.database_id = database_id
+        self._pat = pat
+
+    def name(self) -> str:
+        # TODO: Find out the name of the bucket in SaaS
+        return 'default'
+
+    def files(self) -> Iterable[str]:
+        """To be provided"""
+        raise NotImplementedError()
+
+    def delete(self, path: str) -> None:
+        """To be provided"""
+        raise NotImplementedError()
+
+    def upload(self, path: str, data: ByteString | BinaryIO) -> None:
+        """To be provided"""
+        raise NotImplementedError()
+
+    def download(self, path: str, chunk_size: int = 8192) -> Iterable[ByteString]:
+        """To be provided"""
+        raise NotImplementedError()
+
+
+class MountedBucket:
+    """
+    Implementation of the Bucket interface backed by a normal file system in read-only mode.
+    The targeted use case is the read-only access to the BucketFS files from a UDF.
+
+    Q. What exception should be raised when the user attempts to download non-existing file?
+    A.
+
+    Q. What exception should be raised if the user tries to delete or upload a file?
+    A.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self,
+                 service_name: str,
+                 bucket_name: str):
+        self._name = bucket_name
+        self.root = Path(service_name) / bucket_name
+
+    @property
+    def name(self) -> str:
+        return self._name
+
+    @property
+    def files(self) -> list[str]:
+        root_length = len(str(self.root))
+        if self.root != self.root.root:
+            root_length += 1
+        return [str(pth)[root_length:] for pth in self.root.rglob('*.*')]
+
+    def delete(self, path: str) -> None:
+        raise PermissionError('File deletion is not allowed.')
+
+    def upload(self, path: str, data: ByteString | BinaryIO) -> None:
+        raise PermissionError('Uploading a file is not allowed.')
+
+    def download(self, path: str, chunk_size: int) -> Iterable[ByteString]:
+        full_path = self.root / path
+        if (not full_path.exists()) or (not full_path.is_file()):
+            raise FileNotFoundError(errno.ENOENT, os.strerror(errno.ENOENT), str(path))
+        with full_path.open('rb') as f:
+            while True:
+                data = f.read(chunk_size)
+                if not data:
+                    break
+                yield data
+
+
 class MappedBucket:
     """
     Wraps a bucket and provides various convenience features to it (e.g. index based access).
diff --git a/exasol/bucketfs/_path.py b/exasol/bucketfs/_path.py
index 4f60b65b..5e0d788c 100644
--- a/exasol/bucketfs/_path.py
+++ b/exasol/bucketfs/_path.py
@@ -4,7 +4,12 @@
 import errno
 import os
 from io import IOBase
-from exasol.bucketfs._buckets import BucketLike
+from exasol.bucketfs._buckets import BucketLike, SaaSBucket, MountedBucket
+from exasol.bucketfs._service import Service
+
+SYSTEM_TYPE_ONPREM = 'onprem'
+SYSTEM_TYPE_SAAS = 'saas'
+SYSTEM_TYPE_MOUNTED = 'mounted'
 
 
 class PathLike(Protocol):
@@ -73,7 +78,7 @@ def read(self, chunk_size: int = 8192) -> Iterable[ByteString]:
             IsADirectoryError: if the pathlike object points to a directory.
         """
 
-    def write(self, data: ByteString | BinaryIO | Iterable[ByteString]):
+    def write(self, data: ByteString | BinaryIO | Iterable[ByteString]) -> None:
         """
         Writes data to this path.
 
@@ -90,7 +95,7 @@ def write(self, data: ByteString | BinaryIO | Iterable[ByteString]):
             NotAFileError: if the pathlike object is not a file path.
         """
 
-    def rm(self):
+    def rm(self) -> None:
         """
         Remove this file.
 
@@ -102,7 +107,7 @@ def rm(self):
             FileNotFoundError: If the file does not exist.
         """
 
-    def rmdir(self, recursive: bool = False):
+    def rmdir(self, recursive: bool = False) -> None:
         """
         Removes this directory.
 
@@ -126,7 +131,7 @@ def joinpath(self, *path_segments) -> "PathLike":
             A new pathlike object pointing the combined path.
         """
 
-    def walk(self) -> Generator[tuple["PathLike", list[str], list[str]], None, None]:
+    def walk(self, top_down: bool = True) -> Generator[tuple["PathLike", list[str], list[str]], None, None]:
         """
         Generate the file names in a directory tree by walking the tree either top-down or bottom-up.
 
@@ -320,7 +325,7 @@ def _rmdir_recursive(self, node: _BucketFile):
         if node.is_file:
             self._bucket_api.delete(node.path)
 
-    def joinpath(self, *path_segments) -> "PathLike":
+    def joinpath(self, *path_segments) -> PathLike:
         # The path segments can be of either this type or an os.PathLike.
         cls = type(self)
         seg_paths = [seg._path if isinstance(seg, cls) else seg for seg in path_segments]
@@ -376,3 +381,79 @@ def __truediv__(self, other):
 
     def __str__(self):
         return str(self._path)
+
+
+def create_onprem_bucket(**kwargs) -> BucketLike:
+    """
+    Creates an on-prem bucket using the arguments in kwargs.
+
+    Q. What exception should be thrown if an essential argument is missing?
+    A.
+
+    Q. Do any default username and password make any sense?
+    A.
+    """
+    url = kwargs.get('url')
+    if url is None:
+        raise ValueError('BucketFS service url is not specified')
+    verify_ca = bool(kwargs.get('verify_ca', True))
+    username = kwargs.get('user') or kwargs.get('username')
+    password = kwargs.get('password')
+    if (not username) or (not password):
+        raise ValueError('BucketFS credentials are not provided')
+    bucket_name = kwargs.get('bucket', 'default')
+    credentials = {bucket_name: {'username': username, 'password': password}}
+    service = Service(url, credentials, verify_ca)
+    buckets = service.buckets
+    if bucket_name not in buckets:
+        raise ValueError(f'Bucket {bucket_name} does not exist.')
+    return buckets[bucket_name]
+
+
+def create_saas_bucket(**kwargs) -> BucketLike:
+    """
+    Creates an on-prem bucket using the arguments in kwargs.
+
+    Q. What exception should be thrown if an essential argument is missing?
+    A.
+    """
+    url = kwargs.get('url', 'https://cloud.exasol.com')
+    account_id = kwargs.get('account_id')
+    if account_id is None:
+        raise ValueError('account_id is not specified.')
+    database_id = kwargs.get('database_id')
+    if database_id is None:
+        raise ValueError('database_id is not specified.')
+    pat = kwargs.get('pat')
+    if pat is None:
+        raise ValueError('pat (Personal Access Token) is not provided.')
+    return SaaSBucket(url=url, account_id=account_id, database_id=database_id, pat=pat)
+
+
+def create_mounted_bucket(**kwargs) -> BucketLike:
+    """
+    Creates a bucket mounted to a UDF
+
+    Q. Should we check that the service and bucket exist?
+    A.
+    """
+    service_name = kwargs.get('service', 'bfsdefault')
+    bucket_name = kwargs.get('bucket', 'default')
+    return MountedBucket(service_name, bucket_name)
+
+
+def build_path(**kwargs) -> PathLike:
+
+    system_type = kwargs.get('system', SYSTEM_TYPE_ONPREM).lower()
+    if system_type == SYSTEM_TYPE_ONPREM:
+        bucket = create_onprem_bucket(**kwargs)
+    elif system_type == SYSTEM_TYPE_SAAS:
+        bucket = create_saas_bucket(**kwargs)
+    elif system_type == SYSTEM_TYPE_MOUNTED:
+        bucket = create_mounted_bucket(**kwargs)
+    else:
+        raise ValueError(f'Unknown BucketFS system type {system_type}. '
+                         'Valid values are: '
+                         f'"{SYSTEM_TYPE_ONPREM}", "{SYSTEM_TYPE_SAAS}", "{SYSTEM_TYPE_MOUNTED}".')
+    path = kwargs.get('path', '')
+    return BucketPath(path, bucket)
diff --git a/test/unit/conftest.py b/test/unit/conftest.py
index 797e3e1e..1dd31912 100644
--- a/test/unit/conftest.py
+++ b/test/unit/conftest.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
-from typing import Iterable, ByteString, BinaryIO
+from typing import ByteString, BinaryIO
 import os
 from io import IOBase
 import shutil
@@ -7,35 +7,29 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 import pytest
 
+from exasol.bucketfs._buckets import MountedBucket
 
-class BucketFake:
+
+class BucketFake(MountedBucket):
     """
     Implementation of the Bucket API backed by the normal file system.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, root: str):
-        self.root = Path(root)
+    def __init__(self, base_dir: str):
+        super().__init__('', '')
+        self.root = Path(base_dir)
         if not self.root.is_dir():
-            raise FileNotFoundError(errno.ENOENT, os.strerror(errno.ENOENT), str(root))
-
-    def _get_full_path(self, path: str | Path):
-        return self.root / path
-
-    @property
-    def files(self) -> list[str]:
-        root_length = len(str(self.root))
-        if self.root != self.root.root:
-            root_length += 1
-        return [str(pth)[root_length:] for pth in self.root.rglob('*.*')]
+            raise FileNotFoundError(errno.ENOENT, os.strerror(errno.ENOENT), str(self.root))
 
     def delete(self, path: str) -> None:
         try:
-            self._get_full_path(path).unlink(missing_ok=True)
+            full_path = self.root / path
+            full_path.unlink(missing_ok=True)
         except IsADirectoryError:
             pass
 
     def upload(self, path: str, data: ByteString | BinaryIO) -> None:
-        full_path = self._get_full_path(path)
+        full_path = self.root / path
         if not full_path.parent.exists():
             full_path.parent.mkdir(parents=True)
         with full_path.open('wb') as f:
@@ -47,17 +41,6 @@ def upload(self, path: str, data: ByteString | BinaryIO) -> None:
                 raise ValueError('upload_file called with unrecognised data type. ' 
                                  'A valid data should be either ByteString or BinaryIO')
 
-    def download(self, path: str, chunk_size: int) -> Iterable[ByteString]:
-        full_path = self._get_full_path(path)
-        if (not full_path.exists()) or (not full_path.is_file()):
-            raise FileNotFoundError(errno.ENOENT, os.strerror(errno.ENOENT), str(path))
-        with full_path.open('rb') as f:
-            while True:
-                data = f.read(chunk_size)
-                if not data:
-                    break
-                yield data
-
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def bucket_fake(tmpdir) -> BucketFake: