The Best Scenic Drives in the Lake District: A Local Guide to the Great Passes and Roads
The Lake District is one of the world's great driving landscapes – a fact the eighteenth century discovered by carriage and every generation since has confirmed – because its geography performs a continuous magic trick: the valleys radiate like wheel-spokes from the high central fells, so that any worthwhile journey must climb over a mountain pass, and every pass is a theatre. As professionals who drive these roads week in, week out, we hold strong opinions on the best of them, and this article shares the honest shortlist: the passes and lakeshore roads that deliver the most scenery per mile, how they join into the classic circuits – and a candid word about which drives are better enjoyed from the passenger seat.
Kirkstone Pass: the grand gateway
The district's highest road pass (1,489 feet) links Windermere and Ambleside to Ullswater, and remains the definitive opening statement: a sweeping climb past the historic inn near the summit, then the superb northern plunge between crag walls toward Brothers Water, with the Ullswater fells filling the windscreen. Its infamous branch road from Ambleside, "The Struggle", earns its name with gradients that once obliged coach passengers to walk. Kirkstone is where our full-day circuits begin, on the sound theatrical principle of opening strongly – our dedicated Kirkstone article tells its stories in full.
Honister Pass: the wild one
Between Borrowdale and Buttermere, Honister is the district's elemental drive: one-in-four gradients, a bare summit amphitheatre of crag and scree, England's last working slate mine at the top, and the great reveal of the Buttermere valley on the western descent. It is the pass our guests talk about at dinner – and the one where visiting drivers most fervently wish they were passengers.
Newlands Hause and Whinlatter: the connoisseurs' pair
The north-west corner hides two beauties. Newlands Hause climbs from the pastoral perfection of the Newlands valley (Beatrix Potter country – she set Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle hereabouts) over to Buttermere, passing the long white ribbon of Moss Force waterfall at the summit – spectacular after rain, and a favourite photo stop on our circuits. Whinlatter, the district's most forested pass, carries the road through England's only true mountain forest, with a celebrated viewpoint gazing down the full length of Bassenthwaite Lake – the district's only official "Lake", as your guide will not resist mentioning. Both passes are gentler than Honister but pay in views far above their difficulty.
The lakeshore classics
Not all great Lakeland driving climbs. The western shore of Ullswater unrolls seven miles of water-and-mountain composition past the Wordsworths' daffodil shore – many judges' single most beautiful A-road stretch in England. The Borrowdale road south of Keswick threads the wooded "Jaws" beneath Castle Crag into England's most beautiful valley. The A591 between Ambleside and Keswick is the spine of the district – Rydal Water, Grasmere, Dunmail Raise's legendary cairn and the drowned-village reservoir of Thirlmere in one continuous narrative – and the little road over to Watendlath via Ashness Bridge packs the most photographed bridge in the Lakes and the theatrical Surprise View into two miles. Further south, the road over from Little to Great Langdale past Blea Tarn is the connoisseur's miniature: hairpins, open fell and a perfect mountain mirror at the top.
The famous ones we treat with respect
Completists will ask about Hardknott and Wrynose, the fearsome twin passes to the remote west – Roman road, one-in-three gradients, hairpins stacked like paperclips – and about Wastwater beyond them, England's deepest lake beneath its plunging screes, home of what was once voted Britain's favourite view. They are magnificent – and they are a serious, slow, committing expedition best undertaken deliberately (and avoided entirely in bad weather or high season traffic), which is why the classic circuits favour the northern passes, keeping the drama-to-stress ratio firmly in the passengers' favour. Road conditions across all the passes are published by the National Park at lakedistrict.gov.uk – worth checking in winter, when Kirkstone and Honister close first under snow.
The ultimate circuit: ten lakes, four passes, one day
Join the best of the above end to end and you get the route we regard – with the confidence of long testing – as the finest single day's scenic driving in England: out over Kirkstone to Brothers Water and Ullswater's shore (with a cruise for the full experience), north past Blencathra to Castlerigg's stone circle and Derwentwater, through Borrowdale's Jaws and over Honister to Buttermere, out past Moss Force with Crummock Water shining below to the Whinlatter viewpoint over Bassenthwaite, then home down the spine road past Thirlmere, Dunmail Raise, Grasmere and Rydal Water – ten lakes, four mountain passes, and roughly five thousand years of stories between breakfast and dinner. It is exactly the route our flagship full-day scenic tour drives, refined stop by stop over years.
The honest word about the wheel
Here is the counsel we offer every self-driving visitor, with love: these roads are safe, spectacular and demanding – narrow, stone-walled, steep and busy in season – and the driver, by unbreakable law of physics, sees the tarmac while everyone else sees the Lake District. Many of our guests are precisely recovering self-drivers who spent day one gripping a hire car's wheel on the wrong side of the road and decided the scenery deserved their full attention. On our small-group scenic tours from Windermere and Ambleside – maximum seven guests – the driving is done by professionals whose daily workplace these passes are, the commentary runs mile by mile, and every seat is a window seat. The Lake District built the best roads-with-views in England. Our considered professional advice, after years aboard them: ride, don't drive – and watch the whole show.
This article is part of our scenic Lake District guides collection – twenty in-depth guides researched and written by our local team. Browse the full library on our Travel Guide Library.