Whinlatter Pass Cycling Guide

​Whinlatter Pass cycling is the perfect introduction to Lakeland passes, offering a gentler, scenic climb.

Direction: East to West: Braithwaite to Lorton​

​

Overview

Whinlatter is the longest of the three Buttermere-area climbs but the least severe and is a welcome change of character after the raw, vertical walls of Honister and Newlands. It is a steady, sheltered ascent that carves through England's only true mountain forest. Widely regarded as the easiest and most accessible of the "Big Six" Lake District passes, it trades the terrifying double-digit pitches of its neighbours for a beautifully predictable, rhythm-friendly gradient that serves as the perfect entry point into Lakeland mountain climbing.

​

The Details

• Distance: 3.7km

• Elevation gain: 242m

• Average gradient: 6.6%

• Maximum gradient: 14% 

• Character: Sheltered, forested, and highly accessible: the gentlest of the Big Six.

• At the Top: Whinlatter Forest Visitor Centre & Siskins Café

​​

History & Character

Whinlatter Pass marks the natural geographic watershed separating the Derwent valley to the east from the Cocker valley to the west. The unique name originates from a collision of early languages left behind by regional settlers: the Old Norse word hvin (meaning gorse, brush, or furze) and the Gaelic word lettir (meaning a steep hill slope), combining over the centuries to mean the "gorse-covered hill slope."

​

During the Middle Ages, this high saddle transformed into an essential trading corridor. The powerful Cistercian monks of Fountains Abbey and nearby Furness Abbey heavily utilised the trackway, driving massive flocks of sheep and long lines of packhorses loaded with local wool and lead ore between their high grazing fells and the regional market hubs of Keswick and Cockermouth. By the mid-19th century, the old wool-pack trails were formally engineered into a wide coach road to keep pace with the Victorian fascination for mountain tourism. Heavy tourist horse-carriages would rumble out of Keswick, allowing early travellers to experience the grand scale of the fells and take in the panoramic views across Bassenthwaite Lake to the Skiddaw range; without the carriages risk of tipping over on the dangerous, shifting gradients found further south.

​

The dense forest canopy that lines the modern road is entirely a product of the 20th century. Following the conclusion of the First World War, intense logging for the national war effort left Britain's total woodland cover down to a critical, catastrophic 5%. To combat this timber crisis and rebuild the country's strategic resource reserves, the government established the newly formed Forestry Commission in 1919. Whinlatter’s "Hospital Plantation" was among the very first parcels of land the Commission purchased and actively planted that same year. Over the subsequent decades, it grew into one of the oldest working forests of its kind in the country, transforming the pass into a protected coniferous habitat where the native red squirrel population and rare local ospreys thrive beneath the towering pines.

​

What to Expect

The road climbs gradually out of the quiet village of Braithwaite. Unlike the brutal, exposed rock faces found on other passes, the tarmac here is heavily tree-lined and deeply shaded. The gradient rises in a series of steps, offering a couple of sharper pitches rather than one sustained, unyielding wall.

​

It is the quintessential rhythm climb. Because the incline rarely snaps violently, you can easily click into a comfortable gear, drop your shoulders, and simply focus on a steady cadence. The reward at the top is less about a dramatic, windswept summit vista and more about the lively, forested environment surrounding it. The visitor centre sits right at the crest, offering a highly popular café and a bustling oasis in the woods, before the road opens out for the sweeping descent down the far side toward Lorton.

​​​

Guide's Experience

To be completely honest, I don't have any dramatic tales of mechanical disaster or near-death exhaustion to tell you about Whinlatter Pass. The climb is fine and on a long, heavy day out in the Lake District fells, 'fine' is exactly what your legs are praying for. It is the ultimate antidote to the psychological trauma of riding the harder passes.

​

One of its greatest strengths is how accessible it is. Sitting right on the doorstep of Keswick, the short, flat spin out of the tourist hub serves as a perfect, brief warm-up to loosen the legs before you hit the base. It is a busy main artery, and the visitor centre at the top is incredibly popular, but unlike the narrow single-track bottlenecks of Hardknott, the road here is wide and modern. Traffic can pass you easily, completely eliminating that claustrophobic anxiety of cars riding your rear wheel.

​

Because the route is so heavily wooded, you are completely wrapped in a blanket of trees. It is incredibly sheltered from the elements; if a freezing Cumbrian gale is howling over the open summits, Whinlatter protects you from the wind. The trade-off, of course, is visual. You don't really get any grand, sweeping views of the surrounding mountains until you finally punch all the way through the forest near the top. But when you do emerge, the atmosphere completely changes. It’s a wonderful spot to slow down, keep your eyes peeled for a rare glimpse of a red squirrel darting through the pines, and enjoy a genuinely relaxed coffee stop at the visitor centre café without having to redline your heart rate just to get there.

​​​

This climb features in our Fred Whitton Epic & Classic tours.