Kirkstone Slate Quarry

Overview

A quarry perched over 500 metres up one of the Lake District's highest road passes, worked for the distinctive green slate that gave the Kirkstone Green Slate Company its name — until a financial collapse in its final years left it derelict, abandoned explosives and all.

History

Slate has been worked at Petts Quarry, near the summit of Kirkstone Pass on the Ambleside side, for a very long period, sold on at Skelwith Bridge nearer Ambleside by the Kirkstone Green Slate Company. The modern operating company began as an unincorporated business in 1949, was incorporated as Kirkstone Green Slate Quarries Ltd in 1955, and was renamed Kirkstone Quarries in 1991. Trading remained satisfactory until the middle of 2010, when conditions deteriorated sharply: annual turnover fell from around £2.2 million to just £848,000 across seven months by early 2012, and the company survived only through personal cash injections from its directors of £50,000 in both December 2011 and January 2012. The quarry finally closed in 2012 with 39 job losses. Burlington Slate Ltd subsequently acquired the site but did not reinstate the workforce, using the upper workings only occasionally for its own extraction.

Geology

The quarry worked green and blue-black Lake District slate, part of the same Ordovician Borrowdale Volcanic Group slate sequence exploited at Honister and elsewhere in Cumbria, taken here from a high, exposed working over 500 metres above sea level near the summit of Kirkstone Pass.

Workings

Slate was extracted at high altitude and processed at Skelwith Bridge near Ambleside rather than entirely on site, the quarry itself producing both green and blue-black slate for roofing and architectural stone.

Closure

A rapid financial collapse from 2010 through early 2012 — turnover falling from £2.2 million to under £850,000 despite emergency director cash injections — forced final closure in 2012, with the loss of 39 jobs.

What remains

Most of the site's buildings remain abandoned since closure; only the upper workings are occasionally accessed by the current owner, Burlington Slate, for extraction. A 2013 exploration report noted abandoned explosives left on site, a genuine hazard given the route's heavy foot traffic from Lake District walkers, subsequently reported to the authorities.

Abandoned quarry buildings, a disused quarry face beside the pass road, and the signed entrance to the wider Kirkstone Quarries site.

Redevelopment

None — owned by Burlington Slate, with only occasional continued extraction from the upper workings.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The modern operating company began unincorporated in 1949, was incorporated as Kirkstone Green Slate Quarries Ltd in 1955, and was renamed Kirkstone Quarries in 1991. ¹
• Trading deteriorated sharply from mid-2010, with turnover falling from about £2.2 million to £848,000 by early 2012 despite £50,000 director cash injections in December 2011 and January 2012; the quarry closed in 2012 with 39 job losses. ¹
• Most buildings remain abandoned since 2012, with only the upper workings occasionally used by the new owner, Burlington Slate; abandoned blasting explosives were found on site in 2013 and reported to the authorities. ²

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

Images

Sources

1. (secondary) Administrators assessing trade and assets of Kirkstone Quarries — business-sale.com
2. (observational) Kirkstone Slate Quarry, Cumbria, May 2013 — Derelict Places

Record created: 25 August 2026 · Last researched: 25 August 2026