Kirkstone Pass
Mountain pass in Cumbria, England
title: "Kirkstone Pass" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["roads-in-cumbria", "mountain-passes-of-the-lake-district", "westmorland", "westmorland-and-furness"] description: "Mountain pass in Cumbria, England" topic_path: "general/roads-in-cumbria" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkstone_Pass" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Mountain pass in Cumbria, England ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox mountain pass"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Kirkstone Pass |
| photo | File:Looking down Kirkstone Pass towards Brothers Water - geograph.org.uk - 549431.jpg |
| photo_caption | Looking north down Kirkstone Pass |
| elevation_ft | 1489 |
| coordinates | |
| map | United Kingdom Lake District#United Kingdom Eden |
| map_caption | Location in the Lake District National Park##Location in Eden, Cumbria |
| label_position | bottom |
| traversed | A592 road |
| :: |
|name=Kirkstone Pass |photo=File:Looking down Kirkstone Pass towards Brothers Water - geograph.org.uk - 549431.jpg |photo_caption=Looking north down Kirkstone Pass |elevation_ft=1489 |coordinates= |map = United Kingdom Lake District#United Kingdom Eden |map_caption = Location in the Lake District National Park##Location in Eden, Cumbria |label_position = bottom |traversed=A592 road
Kirkstone Pass is a mountain pass in the English Lake District, in the county of Cumbria. It is at an altitude of 1489 ft.
It is the District's highest pass traversed by road; the A592 between Ambleside in Rothay Valley and Patterdale in Ullswater Valley. The road gradient approaches 1 in 4. The picturesque view down into Patterdale has Brothers Water as its focal point.
The Kirkstone Pass Inn stands close to the summit. Once a vital coaching inn, it now caters primarily for tourists. It is the third-highest public house in England.
Slate quarrying
Lead and copper ore mining and slate mining has spanned centuries.
Petts Quarry worked by Kirkstone Green Slate Company is just to the Ambleside side of the summit. Nearby is Hartsop Hall lead mine.
Caudale slate mine is a few miles further down, on the Ullswater side, and was last worked at the beginning of the 20th century; all its adits are now blocked.
Name
The name of the pass comes from a prominent stone, the Kirkstone, which stands a few yards from the A592 on the Patterdale side of the inn. Its shadow resembles a steeple; 'kirk' means church in old Norse and was a variant in related Old English.
In local names, the climb from Ambleside is known as The Struggle.
Cultural references
In Cue for Treason, best-known novel of children's writer Geoffrey Trease, much of it set in Cumbria, the narrator's friend long uses the name "Kit Kirkstone", taken from the pass.
"Witch of the Westmorland" by musician Archie Fisher includes the lyric "weary by Ullswater, and the misty brake fern way, down through the cleft of the Kirkstone Pass, the winding water lay".
Gallery
File:Kirkstone Pass to Brothers.jpg|Kirkstone Pass descending to Brothers Water File:Kirkstone Pass Inn (Close Up) 2014.jpg|The Kirkstone Pass Inn File:The Kirk Stone - geograph.org.uk - 1054199.jpg|The church-like Kirk Stone at right, and nearby a nearly cuboid stone File:The Struggle Road Sign Bottom.jpg|The bottom of The Struggle in Ambleside
Notes
References
References
- McVeigh, Tracy. (5 February 2012). "At the lonely Tan Hill Inn, the snow is falling… and business is booming". The Observer.
- "Historic Cat and Fiddle pub on Derbyshire border to reopen after crowdfunding success". Business Live.
- Cameron, Alastair. (2016-03-15). "Slate Mining in the Lake District: An Illustrated History". Amberley Publishing Limited.
- Ferguson, Robert. (1873). "The Dialect of Cumberland; with a Chapter on Its Place-Names". Williams and Norgate.
- Quincey, Thomas De. (1873). "Recollections of the lakes and the lake poets". Shepard and Gill.
- Trease, Geoffrey. (1940). "Cue for Treason". Blackwell.
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