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Thank you Phil for that it is useful but Wow charging £1 for bicycles seems a bit mean.   You would think they would go free just to try to encourage the rest of us to get fitter.

http://www.martynhicks.co.uk/personal/html/exmoor/porlockhill.html

Some cool pictures of the hill in question.

I'd personally attempt any hill, with the van in tow, on a quiet, dry day with no obstructions, but these conditions are very rare and therefore it's the scenic route for me!!

Have chased cars up Blue Bank in Whitby, with van on back, usually screaming for it to get a move on.

Mick  

Hardnott pass in the lakes is the worst I have ever done,not towing I hasten to add.

robin

Porlock Hill isn't the only 1 in 4 on an 'A' road by any means - Sutton Bank is 1 in 4 on a 'A' road, so is Lythe Bank near Whitby, to name just 2. 

There is a reason why the signs prohibit or strongly discourage caravans from using these hills - it's dangerous!  If you were going up, just pray you don't meet anything similar sized coming down ..... , coming down you'd have no braked by the bottom.  Don't try it - go the long way round, save your nerves, and spare a thought for other road users.

I've done Hardnot and Wrynose in the Lakes, and the Struggle up to Kirkstone.

But they are not on 'A' roads.

The views are magnificant.

All this talk about steep hills and burning clutches reminds me of the best nights camping I ever did.

We drove up from Birmingham to the Lakes on a Friday night  - and decided in a mad fit that we were going to camp by the roman fort at the top of Hardnott pass.

Great idea except that it was pitch black, foggy and we were in a 20 year old transit with a big trailer on the back. 

Doing Hardknott and Wrynose is difficult at the bets of times but when your transit needs to be pensionnned off and the clutch is on the last couple of microns of grippy stuff it becomes quite a challenge - the 10 of us in the back spent most of the time pushing the van up the hills.

Hard work at the time but sitting in the tents later that night with a few tins made it worthwhile - and the views the next morning at dawn were out of this world.

Still think about that trip 20 years after.