A Tale of Three Passes

Feature A TALE OF THREE PASSES...

Words/Photos - Jake Senior /Atelier Schnell

We roll the calendar back 12 months, as Club member Jake Senior embarked on a tour of the UK’s very own ‘Alpine passes’ in his E30 325i SE, traversing some of the UK’s most beautiful and dramatic scenery stretching from Northumbria to the Cumbrian Fells and the Lake District. At the present time when Europe’s Alps are difficult to access, Jake’s tale is more relevant than ever...

Jake tackles the infamous Honister Pass in his E30 325i

Our tale of three passes began on an early September morning in 2019, embarking from Newcastle upon Tyne. Our first port of call was to make the all-essential pit stop to top up my E30 on that sweet octane nectar that is V Power 99 RON, and some 63 litres later, we were ready to go.

Hartside, Honister, Whinlatter.

The sun was blazing and with the sunroof cassette nearly concealed, we engaged our playlist and began our journey west along the A695 toward Hexham. This route contributed a leisurely quality to our trip, in stark contrast to that of its larger A69 counterpart, currently littered with roadworks, speed cameras and impatient lorry drivers with painful 60mph restrictions and a burning desire to overtake one another in some sort of unwritten feud of the road. It added to the length of our journey, but time was not of importance as we were driving on our own clock, and the scenery made it worth every minute, the A-roads digressing to B-roads as we passed through a succession of Northumberland towns.

Briefly passing through Hexham and onto Lowgate, we finally reached the A69 for an all-encompassing 500- yard stretch, until we turned off at the Haydon Bridge junction and joined the A686 where the real driving began. We approached the junction in third gear and dropped into second as we entered the long winding corner, and the revs continued to climb up past 3000rpm. The stainless steel PowerFlow exhaust

The inclement Cumbrian weather didn’t spoil Jake’s fun, and it made for some seriously atmospheric shots like this one

system really opens up in the mid ranges and has a powerfully refined note – however, I would not recommend such a system on any long distance journey as the novelty soon wears thin; thankfully a cracking playlist distracted our attention.

As soon as you rotate rubber upon the freshly laid tarmac of the A686, you can’t help but become engaged with the road and your surroundings. As you maneuver along a quintessentially British winding B-road and hurtle through a cathredralesque corridor of blurring greenery, occasional gaps reveal rolling fields and farming skylines resembling Roman times. We pass over fords and landmarks with ancient names such as ‘Cupola Bridge’ and ‘Bearsbridge’.

The corners became sharper and the terrain more aggressive as we approached the open expanse of the Northumberland Moors. This stretch of road requires a slightly tamer driving style as the steep ravines that snake alongside the road have claimed many lives, in particular that of motorcyclists, with their deceivingly camouflaged drops.

Hartside Pass.

After negotiating a series of undulating dips and blind summits, our first resting point was finally within reach. We disembarked at the Northeastern renowned ‘Hartside Pass’ — a well-known place of rendezvous dubbed a ‘mecca’ for local motoring enthusiasts. Hartside summit plays host to a large car park and was once home to Hartside Café, which tragically burnt down in 2018. Despite this, petrolheads still flock to the area for its roads and rewarding panoramic vistas of both the Northumberland and Cumbrian landscape.

After a short pit stop, we rejoined Hartside Pass and resumed our route west. This particular stretch of road is distinguished by its hairpin bends and rapid variations in elevation, earning it a spot as one the AA’s top ten driving roads worldwide, something that perhaps as locals we take for granted. The twists and bends of the A686 can put even the most experienced driver to the test. I have to say, some of the best fun I’ve had in the E30 was on a hill climb up Hartside Pass, dropping into second gear at high revs and letting that back end push me effortlessly around the hairpins.

We rejoined the A686 in all its glory and continued west through the majestic Cumbrian landscape, joining the A66 at Penrith. From here it was mostly straight dual carriageways and mundane farming backdrops until the monolithic lump that is Blencathra (also known as Saddleback), began to peer over the skyline, welcoming us into the Lake District.

Before long we arrived in Keswick with its unmistakably unique characteristics and uniform buildings, constructed solely from the locally sourced Honister Green Slate.

After a brief meander through the town, we set off to pitch up at Castlerigg Campsite. Regrettably the exhaust note and our age demographic presumably

Time to pitch the tent, the E30’s large boot swallowed everything needed for a camping trip, and the sun even tried to shine…

went against us when we were told there was ‘no room at the inn’ and were forced to find an alternative. That’s never an arduous task in the Lake District, more of an inconvenience, so we headed up to Dale Bottom Farm where we were greeted with free roaming hens strutting up a dusty cobbled back lane flanked by slate roofed outbuildings and a white rendered farmhouse. We paid for our spot and went to pitch our tent under an old English elm tree, where we settled down for the night with some burgers and a few beers enjoyed as we watched the flickering lights of wild campers on the slopes of Helvellyn in the distance.

Day Two.

We awoke early the next morning to the relentless sound of tapping on the tent and a waterlogged entrance, which quickly prompted us to pack up and head into Keswick in search of a strong coffee and a cooked breakfast. Soaked to the skin, we sought refuge in the Merienda Coffee Shop on Main Street, where we tucked into a hearty breakfast of bacon, poached eggs and avocado

with thick cut wholegrain toast, setting us up for a full day of driving ahead.

Fed and watered, we headed south from Keswick, absorbing the scenic views along the shore side of Derwent Water, and up along the River Derwent into Borrowdale. In the bottom of the valley the wandering roads are lined with old dry stone walls leading into forked junctions, hedgerows and sparsely dotted small trees, and one-way stone humped bridges that look like the plasticine set of Postman Pat. The ethereal clouds hung low in the valley like a layer of white treetops creating the perfect atmospheric backdrop and an opportunity to steal some photos of the E30.

Despite the weather, the surroundings made it impossible to feel like it was an otherwise miserable day. After a few small detours of curiosity, we finished exploring the valley and headed west toward Honister Pass and Slate Mine, taking a right turn onto the B5289 just before the village of Seatoller.

Honister Pass.

The route to Honister Slate Mine starts off relatively tame for the first two or so miles as you negate a series of winding roads leaving the valley, upon which the real ascent commences. Honister Pass is not shy in its attributes and has subsequently claimed many a clutch with its extreme 20-30 percent incline! There were moments when the car felt like it was going to tip back on itself, bonnet over boot, as we passed camper vans hauling a small bungalow’s worth of furniture pulled over to the side of the narrow one way roads, reluctant to continue with their climb.

Dropping down into second and with the throttle whipping all 170 horses in their ‘six-pen’, the revs steadily rose as the exhaust screamed with the gradual incline. Despite the severe one-in-four slope, the M20B25 straight-six engine made light work of this otherwise laborious trek and our trusty steed powered on to the top.

Reaching a plateau with a small stream and some grazing sheep, we took a break at one of the gravel-spread rest stops, and decided to use this opportunity to fly the drone. After a few attempts it became clear that the conditions weren’t suitable as the clouds were too heavy and low, so we decided to pack up and head on to the slate mine. A short while later following another succession of winding bends, the two adjacent peaks came into view as we passed the visitor’s car park and coffee shop on the site of the old mine. As the road curved around a rocky outcrop to our right, a large slate retaining wall framed an absolutely awe inspiring view with these two gargantuan cliffs on either side of us, like knighted guards granting us passage to enter the next valley, looking down into Buttermere below.

The descent was a lot less arduous than expected, with meandering roads intertwining with small streams as we journeyed alongside a bubbling brook on freshly laid tarmac, crossing over small stone bridges on our way.

We left the towering gorge behind us as we passed through Gatesgarth and continued along Honister Pass, past Buttermere Lake and into Buttermere Village.

Whinlatter Pass.

From Buttermere we turned onto Newlands Pass, an expansive stretch of moorland road that runs north, passing through a number of farmsteads and up into the village of Braithwaite. Once arriving at Braithwaite we passed through a series of white rendered single-story dwellings, farmhouse inns and pubs, exiting to the northwest as we joined the B5292 — better known as the Whinlatter Pass.

The scenery quickly changed as the road steadily climbed and became covered with thick forest on either side, passing a series of viewpoints and rest stops along the way. Whinlatter Pass is a rather leisurely drive in comparison to Hartside and Honister. With its gentle incline and slow winding trajectory, you’re able to fully embrace the surroundings at your own pace.

We continued for some time until we found an entrance spur to a felling site which boasted a fantastic vista of the surrounding area and villages below. Once pulled over we took full advantage of this as a photo opportunity and since weather conditions had cleared, we decided to fly the drone.

After spending a short while here, satisfied we had soaked in all of the scenery, we packed up and headed back toward Keswick which was to be the final leg of our Cumbrian excursion.

From here we ventured east along the A66, with a brief pit stop at the huge and pretentiously overpriced Rheged Centre Service Station – a Venus fly trap for unsuspecting tourists desperate to take an authentic token of their romantic Cumbrian holiday home with them. With its stone clad walls and sloping hill-like green roof, it has to be one of the least obtrusive filling stations I’ve witnessed in my time, and despite their price points, I did enjoy a rather nice coffee and a pastry from their bakery. I also managed to take full advantage of the free compressed air, making sure all four of the E30’s tyres were still at optimum pressure for our final stretch home.

Rested, fueled and aired we concluded our journey taking the path of least resistance home along the A66 to Penrith, joining the M6 north and finally taking the A69 east at Carlisle, back to Newcastle.

Overall this road trip encompassed some fantastic driving roads — some of the best in the UK for that matter. With a mix of undulating moorland hill climbs, forest twists and steep valley gorges, it evokes a sense of adventure within the driving enthusiast. And with an absolutely astounding array of scenery to match, it all contributes to building a route I’ll definitely be taking again in the future.

Jake Senior is a member of the Club and proprietor of Atelier Schnell, a digital car blog/design house offering photographic and journalistic services and online automobile critique. Jake can be found on Instagram - @atelier_schnell