A591 road, Lake District - June 2009 Edit 1

The A591 is a major road in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

, in the north-west of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, which lies almost entirely within the Lake District national park. A 2009 poll by satellite navigation firm

Garmin Garmin Ltd. (shortened to Garmin, stylized as GARMIN, and formerly known as ProNav) is an American, Swiss-domiciled multinational technology company founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao in Lenexa, Kansas, United States, with headquarte ...

named the stretch of the road between

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in length, and almost 1 mile (1.5 km) at its wides ...

and Keswick as the most popular road in Britain. The 29.8 mile stretch between Kendal and Keswick was also named the UK's best driving road, according to a specially devised driving ratio formulated by car rental firm Avis.

Route

The road begins (at its southern end) north-west of junction 36 of the

M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at ...

at Brettargh Holt roundabout with the

A590 road The A590 is a trunk road in southern Cumbria, in the north-west of England. It runs north-east to south-west from M6 junction 36, through the towns of Ulverston and Barrow-in-Furness to terminate at Biggar Bank on Walney Island.Sizergh Castle Sizergh Castle and Garden is a stately home and garden at Helsington in the English county of Cumbria, about south of Kendal. Located in historic Westmorland, the castle is a grade I listed building. While remaining the home of the Hornyold- ...

. It bypasses the town of Kendal as a dual carriageway, this £1.9m section opened on 29 August 1971. It becomes a busy

single carriageway A single carriageway (British English) or Undivided highway (American English) is a road with one, two or more lanes arranged within a one carriageway with no central reservation to separate opposing flows of traffic. A single-track road has a s ...

road as it enters the Lake District. It bypasses the town of

, closely following the north-eastern bank of

. It then travels through the centre of

Ambleside Ambleside is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, in Cumbria, in North West England. Historically in Westmorland, it marks the head (and sits on the east side of the northern headwater) of Windermere, England's larges ...

, follows the northern side of

Rydal Water Rydal Water is a small body of water in the central part of the English Lake District, in the county of Cumbria. It is located near the hamlet of Rydal, between Grasmere and Ambleside in the Rothay Valley.Parker, 2004, page 35 The lake is 1, ...

, passes White Moss Common, follows the eastern edge of Grasmere and passes the village of Grasmere. The road continues over

Dunmail Raise Dunmail Raise is the name of a large cairn in the English Lake District, which may have been an old boundary marker. It has given its name to the mountain pass of Dunmail Raise, on which it stands. This mountain pass forms part of the only low-lev ...

and along the eastern edge of

Thirlmere Thirlmere is a reservoir in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria and the English Lake District. The Helvellyn ridge lies to the east of Thirlmere. To the west of Thirlmere are a number of fells; for instance, Armboth Fell and Raven Crag both ...

. Shortly afterwards it reaches the town of Keswick. It meets the

A66 road The A66 is a major road in Northern England, which in part follows the course of the Roman road from Scotch Corner to Penrith. It runs from east of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire to Workington in Cumbria. Route From its easter ...

at a grade-separated junction. Traffic then bypasses Keswick by following the A66 west for 2.2 km to a roundabout where the A591 resumes, continuing in a roughly north-westerly direction, with fine views over

Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake is one of the largest water bodies in the English Lake District. It is long and narrow, approximately long and wide, but is also extremely shallow, with a maximum depth of about . It is the only body of water in the Lake ...

. The road terminates at the village of Bothel, on the

A595 road The A595 is a primary route in Cumbria, in Northern England that starts in Carlisle, passes through Whitehaven and goes close to Workington, Cockermouth and Wigton. It passes Sellafield and Ravenglass before ending at the Dalton-in-Furness ...

The Bothel to Keswick section has many acute bends and is particularly narrow in places, so care is needed when driving on it.

Storm damage and closure

The road was badly damaged during Storm Desmond on 5 December 2015 including a part washed away at Dunmail Raise and landslip adjacent to Thirlmere. The closed section of road between Grasmere and Legburthwaite reopened on 11 May 2016. While the road was closed a new tarmac path for walkers, cyclists, and horseriders was built to the west of the road at Dunmail Raise.

References

External links

SABRE page on the A591
{{DEFAULTSORT:5-0591 Roads in Cumbria Scenic routes in the United Kingdom