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Winnats Pass (or just Winnats as it is shown on some Ordnance Survey maps) is a hill pass and limestone gorge in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England. It lies to the west of the village of Castleton, in the National Trust's High Peak Estate and the High Peak borough of Derbyshire. The road winds through a cleft, surrounded by high limestone ridges. The pass was once thought to have originated as a giant collapsed cavern; however, a more recent explanation is that it was a ravine between the coral reefs that originally formed the limestone.
The name is a corruption of 'wind gates'. A local legend is that the pass is haunted after a young couple were murdered by miners in 1758.
The permanent closure of the main A625 road at Mam Tor in 1979 due to subsidence has resulted in Winnats Pass being heavily used by road traffic. However, the narrowness of the road and its maximum gradient of over 28% (1 in 3 1⁄2) has caused it to be closed to buses, coaches and vehicles over 7.5 tonnes in weight. The road regularly features in the Tour of the Peak cycle race each autumn.
Winnats Pass was the location used for annual access relays in support of greater access to the moorlands or the Peak District at the time of the Mass Trespass of Kinder Scout. At their peak these were attended by up to 10,000 people.
