Honister Pass

pass · GB · 356 m

54.5115, -3.1990

A road through the Lake District connecting Borrowdale to Buttermere at 356 metres. Honister Crag rises on the east side, a dark wall of slate that has been quarried since the eighteenth century. The Hause, as it is locally known, is not a gentle crossing: the gradient reaches one in four in places, and snow can shut it for weeks each winter. The slate mine at the summit still produces material for roofing and craft. From the top the view opens west to the Buttermere fells and east to the head of Derwentwater. The name probably comes from the Old English hohn-ostre, a place where young cattle graze.