The short B5322 allows traffic to pass from the A591 to the A66 whilst avoiding Keswick. However, as the road is narrower and twistier than the map suggests, and boasts a 20 limit, it is not really the short cut that might be presumed! The road was originally unclassified and gained its number in the mid-1920s.
We start on the A591 at Legburthwaite near the northern end of Thirlmere, although the lake is hidden behind Great How. The junction is a fairly simple fork, with the B5322 heading off to the right and soon picking up the bank of St John's Beck. As we twist and turn along the narrow valley floor, the scattered village of Legburthwaite gives way to the even more scattered St John's in the Vale, where the road's only intermediate junction with a through-road is found - the unclassified road that crosses the beck and climbs to meet the old route of the A66. Meanwhile, our road climbs gently away from the beck, passes Birkett Mine and meets the A66 just south of Threlkeld, with the road originally crossing this new road to enter the village. That piece of road is now cut off.
