Kirkstone Pass

The road

Kirkstone is long rather than steep. From Troutbeck Bridge the A592 climbs 346 m in 5.7 miles to the summit, one in twenty-five on average, and never steeper than one in seven (13%) over 200 m. From Cow Bridge at the foot of Brothers Water it is 298 m in 3.4 miles, one in eighteen on average, with the steepest 200 m at one in seven a kilometre below the top; about a quarter of that side is steeper than one in ten. Neither side is a hairpin road, and both carry coaches.

The Struggle is the other road, and the figures are different: 229 m in 2 miles from the edge of Ambleside to the inn, one in fourteen on average, with the last kilometre the steep part, one in five (18%) over 200 m just below the top. It is narrow, it has no passing places to speak of on the upper section, and in the wet the corners are slow; it is the road to take up, not down, and not with a trailer.

Those figures are measured from the terrain model along the mapped roads, over 200 m windows, so they describe the road a driver feels rather than a sign; the signs on The Struggle say one in four.

Is Kirkstone Pass open?

Most of the year, yes, and as a main road it is cleared before the minor passes. But 454 m is high enough that Kirkstone closes in snow when nothing else in the district does, and drifting on the exposed top can shut it within an hour of a clear morning. It can also close for a long time: a landslip at High Kingate, between Troutbeck and the inn, shut the A592 on 5 November 2025 and it did not reopen until 17 July 2026, eight months of a signed diversion by the A6 (Westmorland and Furness Council's news pages and ITV Border carried the dates). That is the closure the searches still ask about. There is no open data feed that says whether the pass is open right now, but there is a picture: the council's weather cameras include one on the A592 at Kirkstone Pass, which is the honest way to check for snow before you set off. Planned closures appear on the council's roadworks map, and the 508's timetable page says when the bus is diverted.

Parking at the top

The summit car park, across the road from the inn, is the start for Red Screes and is unsurfaced. It was the National Park Authority's until June 2026, when the Authority handed the lease back (BBC); it belongs to the inn site's owner and has been charged since July, so read the sign and do not assume the pub's custom covers it. Along the top of the pass a string of free lay-bys serves St Raven's Edge and Red Screes, and a kilometre below the summit on the Patterdale side the National Park's Red Pit car park is free and is the closer start for Middle Dodd. The car parks nearest the summit are listed below with what we know about each.

The bus over the pass

The 508 is the bus that crosses Kirkstone, between Windermere and Penrith by way of Patterdale and Glenridding, and it stops at the Kirkstone Pass Inn in both directions. That makes a linear walk possible: Red Screes from the top and down to Ambleside, or over Caudale Moor to Hartsop and the bus home from the road end. The times and the days it runs are on the bus map; it is a seasonal service and the stop at the inn is not one we hold a last-bus time for, so check before you rely on it.

The inn at the top

The Kirkstone Pass Inn stands a few yards below the summit on the Ambleside side, a coaching inn dating itself to 1496 and one of the highest pubs in England (the third-highest is the usual claim; the Cat and Fiddle's status makes the ranking fuzzy). It was shut for about five years, was restored and reopened in April 2026, and its status has changed since: in September 2026 its own site said open with daily hours while CAMRA's listing recorded it closed long-term from 18 August. The BBC and the local press reported that the brewery's lease had ended, and the site's owner said the closure had nothing to do with the car park charges introduced in July. It is somebody else's business and this page does not track it; the searches around it ask exactly that, and the honest answer is its own site. When it is open, its social feeds are often the first word in winter on whether the pass is.

The walks from the top

Starting at 454 m changes the arithmetic. From the summit car park:

• Red Screes — 779 m (the Database of British and Irish Hills height this site uses throughout; OS maps and Wainwright say 776), straight up the steep east face from the car park, 320 m of climbing on a rough path to one of the best viewpoints in the eastern fells; the shortest way onto a fell of this height in the district. The Fairfield long hike from Ambleside climbs it the long way.
• Middle Dodd — 654 m, the grassy ridge north of Red Screes above the Hartsop valley, best from Red Pit.
• St Raven's Edge — 593 m, the Birkett across the road to the south, from the lay-bys.
• Caudale Moor — 763 m, Stony Cove Pike, above the pass on its east side. Caudale Moor and St Raven's Edge takes four tops from Cow Bridge at the Patterdale foot.

The box below lists the fells nearest the summit with a line about each.