The Buttertubs Pass is a high road in the

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales are a series of valleys, or Dale (landform), dales, in the Pennines, an Highland, upland range in England. They are mostly located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, but extend into C ...

, England. The road winds its way north from Simonstone near

Hawes Hawes is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, at the head of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales, and historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The River Ure north of the town is a tourist attraction in the Yorks ...

towards Thwaite and

Muker Muker is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the western end of Swaledale in North Yorkshire, England, within the Yorkshire Dales. The parish includes the hamlets and villages of Angram, Muker, Angram, Keld, North Yorkshire ...

past

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

pothole A pothole is a pot-shaped depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement. It is usually the result of water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over the affecte ...

s called the Buttertubs. It is said that the name of the potholes came from the times when farmers would rest there on their way to market. During hot weather they would lower the

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...

they had produced into the potholes to keep it cool. The road is locally noted as a challenging cycle climb and featured as the second, and highest of three categorised climbs in Stage One of the

2014 Tour de France The 2014 Tour de France was the 101st edition of the race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race included 21 stages, starting in Leeds, Yorkshire, United Kingdom, on 5 July and finishing on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 27 July. The race ...

. The race was led over the climb by German veteran

Jens Voigt Jens Voigt (; born 17 September 1971) is a German former professional road bicycle racer and, upon retirement, became a cycling sports broadcast commentator. During his cycling career, Voigt raced for several teams, the last one being UCI ProTe ...

, on his way to becoming the 2014 race's first wearer of the polka dot jersey as leader of the

mountains classification The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing, Queen of the Mountains (QoM) is used. While the title may be given to the rider who achieves the highest p ...

. The climb was to be featured during the men's elite road race of the

2019 UCI Road World Championships The 2019 UCI Road World Championships was the 92nd edition of the UCI Road World Championships, the annual world championships for road bicycle racing. It took place between 22 and 29 September 2019 in the Historic counties of England, historic c ...

, but the race had to be rerouted due to heavy rain.

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English television presenter, journalist, farmer, and author who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for hosting the television programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), T ...

featured the road in the "Motoring and the New Romantics" episode of the British series ''

Clarkson's Car Years Clarkson's Car Years is a British television series presented by Jeremy Clarkson and first shown during June and July 2000 on BBC Two, before being shown to an international audience on BBC World. Since 2008, it has regularly been repeated on v ...

''. This road has also been used many times in the BBC's ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the ori ...

'' series for test driving cars. The Buttertubs Pass is mentioned in the 1971 folk-rock song "The Gipsy", by Mr. Fox.

References

Landforms of North Yorkshire Mountain passes of England Scenic routes in the United Kingdom Transport in North Yorkshire Yorkshire Dales {{NorthYorkshire-geo-stub