Kirkstone Pass
Kirkstone Pass is a mountain pass in the English Lake District, in the county of Cumbria. It is at an altitude of 1,489 feet (454 m).
| Kirkstone Pass | |
|---|---|
Looking north down Kirkstone Pass | |
| Elevation | 1,489 ft (454 m) |
| Traversed by | A592 road |
| Coordinates | 54°28′38″N 2°55′22″W / 54.47733°N 2.92283°W |
Kirkstone Pass Location in the Lake District National Park | |
It is the District's highest pass traversed by road, the A592 road 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.[a]
Slate quarrying edit
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.[3] 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 edit
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.[4] Its shadow resembles a steeple;[5] '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 edit
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.[6]
"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 edit
- Kirkstone Pass descending to Brothers Water
- The Kirkstone Pass Inn
- The church-like Kirk Stone at right, and nearby a nearly cuboid stone
- The bottom of The Struggle in Ambleside
See also edit
Notes edit
- ^ The highest is the Tan Hill Inn in North Yorkshire;[1][2] the next is the Cat and Fiddle Inn in the Peak District.[2]
References edit
- ^ McVeigh, Tracy (5 February 2012). "At the lonely Tan Hill Inn, the snow is falling… and business is booming". The Observer. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
- ^ a b "Historic Cat and Fiddle pub on Derbyshire border to reopen after crowdfunding success". Business Live. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ Cameron, Alastair (15 March 2016). Slate Mining in the Lake District: An Illustrated History. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4456-5131-6.
- ^ 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). "2: Escape". Cue for Treason (Hardcover). England: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0631003502.
Kit Kirkstone, he said without hesitating...he was lying......he's making that up; it's the name of a pass between the mountains, over to Patterdale.
External links edit
- Media related to Kirkstone Pass at Wikimedia Commons