Kirkstone Pass

Kirkstone Pass – A592

: Ambleside

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.

image of the road known as 'The Struggle' which leads to the Kirkstone Pass
Kirkstone Pass. The Struggle, leaving Ambleside. Photo by Mathew Emmott

In places, the gradient is 1 in 4. Brothers Water provides a picturesque view on the descent to Patterdale.

Kirkstone Pass road closures 2023 and 2024

2023: The Kirkstone Pass will be closed completely from 2nd October 2023 for 3 weeks. It is expected to reopen before the school half term holidays at the end of October.

Further overnight closures are scheduled from 9pm until 7am from Monday, October 30 until Friday, November 17 2023 and from December 6 until December 20 2023. and from January 3 until January 19 2024.

A further full road closure is expected for four weeks from March 1st 2024.

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.

image of an aerial view of the Kirkstone Quarry and the road known as The Struggle
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

Near the top of the pass is Kirkstone Quarry (below), where rock extraction and architectural stone production took place over 500m above sea level. Further production facilities for bespoke items such as work surfaces, head office and trade showroom were located at Skelwith Bridge near Ambleside.

The main materials mined were 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.

image of an aerial view of the Kirkstone Quarry
Kirkstone Quarry. Photo by Simon Ledingham.

In 2012 Kirkstone Quarry went into administration with the loss of 39 highly skilled and, locally, much prized jobs. In recent years such local quarries have faced intense competition from cheap imported stone from India, South America and China. Today Honister Slate Mine on Honister Pass, Borrowdale, is also fighting for survival with the aid of their tourism business, including plans for a large zip wire. Their future and that of some of the last mining in the Lake District is now threatened by Lake District National Park planners’ and the ever vocal ‘Friends of the Lake District’s objections.

Grid Ref : NY 401079

Looking back up Kirkstone Pass from the ridge of Caudale Moor.
Towards Brothers Water and Ullswater from the ridge of Caudale Moor.
Approaching Kirkstone Pass Inn.
Looking from Kirkstone Pass to Brothers Water.
The Kirk Stone
The Struggle, approaching the Inn
Kirkstone Pass and quarry
Kirkstone Quarry.
The Struggle, leaving Ambleside.
Looking back to the Kirkstone Pass Inn
The Kirkstone Pass Inn

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