Wednesday May 29th

The Old Man of Coniston

We were in the lakes for Julian's birthday celebrations and, as it was nearby, we thought that we'd revisit The Old Man of Coniston: We'd gone up it many (many!) years ago on one of our early trips to the lakes, and probably the first time when we'd hired a place to stay rather than camp. The forecast wasn't brilliant, but we didn't expect it to be quite so wet and windy. As we set off from the car park on the Walna Scar Road, there was the occasional bright sunny spot even though the summits were in the mist.

The enticing view from the car park

We took the path leading up past the old quarry workings which seemed familiar from our previous walks. It was quite steep and, as we got higher, there was definitely the need for a sustaining snack.

A snack with a view

Above the workings, the path takes us above Low Water and the path steepens considerably.

Above Low Water

As we got higher, people on the descent warned us that it was breezy at the top and we reached the summit cairn in the mist. 

The summit cairn

We decided to go down via Goat's Water as the ascent was unpleasantly steep and uneven. No further photos were taken as it became more and more wet, cold and windy. We were very happy to get back to the car, change out of our wet boots and get back to Graythwaite, where we were staying.

This was a summit shot shared a couple of days later:


A pretty tough 5.4 miles with 660m ascent.


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