The most dramatic of the central Lake District passes, climbing south from Borrowdale at a punishing gradient up to the 356 m top, where the Honister Slate Mine has been working the green slate of Fleetwith Pike since the 17th century.
Tours go underground into the mine; the more adventurous can do the via ferrata bolted up the cliff face above. The pass itself is one of the great drives, hairpins and dry-stone walls and unforgiving stone faces; in winter it closes regularly to snow.