Hardknott Pass is a hill pass that carries
a minor road between Eskdale and
the Duddon Valley in
the Lake District National
Park, Cumbria, England. The tarmacked
highway, which is the most direct route from the central Lake District to West
Cumbria, shares the title of steepest road in England (the other
is Rosedale Chimney
Bank in North
Yorkshire). It has a maximum gradient of 1 in 3 (about 33%).
Etymology
The pass takes its
name from Hard Knott which
is derived from the Old
Norse harthr (hard)
and knutr (craggy hill).
Geography
A single track road highway
runs between Eskdale in
the west to the edge of the neighbouring Wrynose Pass in the
east. On the western side is Harter Fell and
the remains of Hardknott
Roman Fort (200 metres (660 ft) above sea level).
The Hardknott Pass
stands at a maximum elevation of 393 m (1,289 ft). The Isle of Man in
the Irish Sea can
be seen on clear days. The road descends steeply at a gradient of 30% (1
in 3) into the Duddon Valley. At the eastern end of the pass is Cockley
Beck farmhouse, it was built in the 1860s and currently owned by the National Trust. The
route from Hardknott leads eastward towards the Wrynose Pass and Ambleside.
The pass is
described as one of the most challenging roads in Britain. A series
of hairpin bends make
visibility difficult in various places. Traffic ascending the pass have
priority as advised by the Highway Code. The pass is
often closed in winter due to ice that makes the route impassable for
vehicles. The challenging 1 in 3 gradients make the route popular with
cyclists. It is part of the annual Fred Whitton
Challenge, a 112-mile ride around the Lake District.
History
A road over the
pass was built by the Romans around
AD 110 to link the coastal fort
and baths at Ravenglass with
their garrisons at Ambleside and Kendal. The Romans called
this road the Tenth Highway. The road fell into disrepair after the Romans
left Britain in the early 5th century, although it remained as an unpaved packhorse route
thereafter. The road was originally used entirely for military traffic,
but following the Romans' retreat from Britain was used to transport lead and
agricultural goods. By the early Middle Ages, the road was known as the
Waingate ("cart road") or Wainscarth ("cart pass"): there
is an 1138 record of a party of monks traversing it in an oxcart. Hardknott
pass and its surrounding area fell with in the domain of the Lord's of Millom,
being situated between the headwaters of the Esk and Duddon. Grazing and
hunting rights were given to the monks of Furness Abbey by the Lord's of Millom
in the 13th Century, which they held until the dissolution of the monasteries
(1536-41).
In the 1880s an
association of hoteliers, the English Lake District Association, financed
improvements to the road in the hope of encouraging tourist excursions by
carriage; by 1891 the scheme was judged to be "not the success that was
anticipated". Nevertheless, the route had some popularity with
cyclists and early motorists, with the Cyclists' Touring
Club1911 Guide to North-West England describing
the old coach road as "difficult going West, cruel coming
East". The first motor vehicles were taken over the Hardknott and
Wrynose passes, from the Eskdale side, in 1913.
In 1936, the Cumberland Highways
Committee considered, and rejected, a proposal to make the pass more accessible
to motors by laying down a new road surface and making other improvements.
However, during the Second World War the War Office used the
area for tank training completely destroying the existing road surface. After
the war the wartime damage was repaired and tarmacked. A decade after the
local government had rejected opening the highway to vehicles, the war's legacy
had inadvertently created a direct route between Ambleside and Eskdale for the
first time.
The courses of the
Roman and modern roads are not identical. The Roman highway -
on the western side - is to the north of the modern road and to the south on
the eastern side of the pass.