A591 road

A591 road shield

A591 road
Route information
Length: 43 mi (69 km)
Major junctions
North end: Bothel
  A595 A595 road
A66 A66 road
A5271 A5271 road
A593 A593 road
A5075 A5075 road
A592 A592 road
A5074 A5074 road
A5284 A5284 road
A6 A6 road
A590 A590 road
South end: Sedgwick
Location
Primary
destinations
:
Keswick
Grasmere
Ambleside
Windermere
Kendal
Road network
The A591 as it passes between Ambleside and Grasmere

The A591 is a major road in Cumbria, in the north-west of England. The stretch of the road between Windermere and Keswick has been voted Britain's Favourite Road.[1] 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.[2]

Route

The road begins (at its southern end) 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north-west of junction 36 of the M6 motorway at Brettargh Holt roundabout with the A590 road (54°16′29″N 2°45′38″W / 54.2746°N 2.7605°W / 54.2746; -2.7605 (A591 road (southern end))), close to Sizergh Castle. It bypasses the town of Kendal as a dual carriageway, this £1.9m 3-mile (4.8 km) section opened on 29 August 1971. It becomes a busy single carriageway road as it enters the Lake District. It bypasses the town of Windermere, closely following the north-eastern bank of Lake Windermere. It then travels through the centre of Ambleside, follows the northern side of Rydal Water, passes White Moss Common, follows the eastern edge of Grasmere and passes the village of Grasmere. The road continues over Dunmail Raise and along the eastern edge of Thirlmere. Shortly afterwards it reaches the town of Keswick. It meets the A66 road 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. The road terminates at the village of Bothel, on the A595 road (54°44′09″N 3°16′24″W / 54.7357°N 3.2733°W / 54.7357; -3.2733 (A591 road (northern end))). The Bothel-to-Keswick section has many acute bends and is particularly narrow in places, leading to many accidents.

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.[3]

References

External links

Coordinates: 54°29′38″N 3°02′19″W / 54.4939°N 3.0386°W / 54.4939; -3.0386 (A591 road)

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.