A592
From Roader's Digest: The SABRE Wiki
| A592 | ||||||||||
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| From: | Newby Bridge (SD371861) | |||||||||
| To: | Penrith (NY496284) | |||||||||
| Via: | Windermere, Patterdale, Glenridding | |||||||||
| Length: | 34.3 miles (55.2 km) | |||||||||
| Meets: | A590, A5074, A591, A5091, A66, A6, M6, B5288 | |||||||||
| Former Number(s): | B5320, B5306, A594 | |||||||||
| Now part of: | B5360, A5074, B5320 | |||||||||
| Primary Destinations | ||||||||||
| Penrith • Windermere • | ||||||||||
| Highways Authorities | ||||||||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||||||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
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Contents |
Route
The A592 is probably one of the Lake District's most scenic routes and compared to its neighbour the A591 much quieter.
Section 1:Newby Bridge - Windermere
The A592 starts at the southern (formerly Lancashire) end of Windermere at a junction with the A590 in the village of Newby Bridge, then proceeds along the eastern shore of the lake up to the busy resort of Bowness passing the ferry across the lake to Sawrey (where Beatrix Potter lived). In the centre of Bowness the road has a cannoning junction with the A5074 from Levens and this becomes the main road up to Windermere town itself with the A592 (Rayrigg Road) acting as a bypass.
Section 2:Windermere - Glenridding
At the end of this bypass past the Steamboat Museum we cross the A591 and start the climb up Kirkstone Pass. At the top of the pass (1489 feet) is a pub and here we have a junction with the very steep unclassified road from Ambleside appropriately named "The Struggle"
Once down the pass we meet the 2nd of the 3 lakes along the A592 - Brothers Water, one of the smaller waters and meres in the Lake District, though there is evidence that this lake was once much larger and may have once been the southern part of Ullswater.
Next along the road are the almost continuous villages of Patterdale and Glenridding, full of hotels, tourist shops and guesthouses. At Glenridding we meet England's 2nd largest and probably loveliest lake - Ullswater. Glenridding is also one of the landing stages of the Ullswater steamer.
Section 3:Glenridding - Waterfoot
After Glenridding the road continues mainly along the lake shore passing Aira Force at the junction with the A5091 which connects to the A66 at Troutbeck. I've never understood why the A5091 should merit an A number when it is so clearly a B-standard road. The road leaves the lake shore for a while to pass through the scattered settlement of Watermillock.
A couple of miles on from Watermillock and the A592 changes course completely but this was not always so.
Originally the road number carried on to Pooley Bridge (the village at the northern end of Ullswater) and through the villages of Tirril and Yanwath and met the A6 at Eamont Bridge (next to the ancient earthwork known as Arthurs Round Table) and the road from Pooley to Penrith was the B5320. But when the M6 Penrith Bypass was opened in 1968 the B5320 and A592 swapped numbers although priorities at the junction of the 2 roads didn't change so now there is a TOTSO junction here.
Section 4:Waterfoot - Penrith
The "new" course of the A592 runs past the stately home of Dalemain and joins the A66 Stainton-Redhills bypass at the Slapestones or Rheged roundabout. From here to M6 J40 (Skirsgill) the A66 and A592 multiplex although the old B5320 took a different route through the hamlet of Redhills.
At J40 the A592 resurrects itself as the main road into Penrith although town centre traffic is directed to go along the A66 for another mile and enter the town via Bridge Lane (A6).
The A592 now becomes Ullswater Road or does it because on the 1990s version of OS Explorer map of the NE Lakes this is shown as part of the A6 but no other maps show it as such and the signs all still say A592. Although the latest version of the map has restored it to A592.
Ullswater Road is not the most attractive entrance to Penrith as you pass mainly retail units (Aldi, Halfords, Wickes) till you get to the Railway Station and McDonalds opposite the town's castle. At the roundabout near the castle you join Penrith's one way system whose road numbering history is very chequered.
Before the M6 - Ullswater Road was part of the B5320, Castlegate and Cromwell Road were part of the A594, Brunswick Road was the whole of the B5306
After the M6 - Castlegate, Cromwell Road and Brunswick Road all became one way streets and were numbered as parts of the A592 although curiously some maps produced just after the motorway was opened showed that Ullswater Road and Castlegate were numbered B5320 making this a duplicate of the road number from Pooley Bridge to Eamont Bridge.
From 1996 - Brunswick Road became two way and was renumbered at least on road signs as the A6. Castlegate remained one way but I think is A6 though the OS Explorer map shows it as unclassified and Cromwell Road (the stretch between the Safeway and Castle roundabouts) became two way and is still signed as the A592.
From this confusion the best I can make out is that the A6 and A592 multiplex along Cromwell Road and the A592 now ends at the Safeway roundabout which means although the road has had 3 termini it has always ended at a junction with the A6.
Though to confuse matters more official notifications of road closures etc printed in the local papers state that Brunswick Road and Castlegate are still officially the A592 while the A6 still runs through the centre of Penrith (but in only one direction)
Original Author(s): Carl Ryding
