Location : Ambleside
Map - Ordnance Survey - NY 401079
The Struggle, leaving Ambleside. Photo by Matthew Emmott.
Kirkstone Pass with an altitude of 1,489 feet is the Lake District's highest pass that is open to motor traffic. It connects Ambleside in the Rothay Valley to Patterdale in the Ullswater valley - the A592 road. There is another route from Troutbeck, which joins the Ambleside road at the Kirkstone Pass Inn.
In places, the gradient is 1 in 4. Brothers Water provides a picturesque view on the descent to Patterdale.
The Kirkstone Pass Inn stands close to the summit of the pass. Formerly an important coaching inn, it now caters primarily for tourists. It is the third highest public house in England.
Kirkstone Pass and quarry. The struggle, from Ambleside, bottom right, and
the road from Troutbeck centre right, meeting at the Kirkstone Pass Inn.
Photo by Simon Ledingham.
Kirkstone Quarry. Photo by Simon Ledingham.
Near the top of the pass is Kirkstone Quarry, where rock extraction and architectural stone production takes place over 500m above sea level. Further production facilities for bespoke items such as work surfaces, head office and trade showroom are located at Skelwith Bridge near Ambleside.
The main materials mined are green and blue-black slate. The former, a unique composition of volcanic material layered down some 450 million years ago, is found only in relatively small deposits within the Lake District. Intense compression led to metamorphosis into a dense and highly durable rock with great lateral strength. The latter took on a much more common geological formation, being an accumulation of dense and deeply compressed sedimentary material formed some years after the volcanic period, deep in the rifts of the earth's surface.
The Struggle, approaching the Inn. Photo by Tony Richards.
Approaching Kirkstone Pass Inn. Photo by Simon Ledingham.
The Kirkstone Pass Inn. Photo by David Hall.
And looking back to the Kirkstone Pass Inn. Photo by David Hall.
The Kirk Stone. Photo by Tony Richards.
Looking from Kirkstone Pass to Brothers Water.
Photo by Simon Ledingham.
Looking back up Kirkstone Pass from the ridge of Caudale Moor.
Photo by Tony Richards.
And towards Brothers Water and Ullswater from the ridge of Caudale Moor.
Photo by Tony Richards.
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