Coniston Old Man and Modern Man - Photo Gallery
What happened to the weather? When I set off at 7 o'clock it was dark and very wet, when I arrived at Coniston at just after half past eight a bright new day had begun, the fells around the village were bathed in sunshine and there was not a cloud in sight.
I set off along the Walna Scar Road, a plod on tarmac until the disused quarry, now an informal but popular car parking area. For a while the high fells are out of sight and to the south everything is flat as far as the sea, the sign-posted path to the Old Man at the reedy pool called Boo Tarn being one of the few reminders that high ground is nearby.
A pleasant stroll along a reasonable path in the sunny open countryside until getting close to Cove Bridge. The impressive rocks of Dow Crag then come into view, looking magnificent being illuminated by the bright sunshine, the volume of water rushing under the bridge is a clue to the previous days weather conditions.
From the bridge I walked northwards over wet ground until I found the path leading to Goat's Water, the warmth of the sunshine was overwhelmed by a bitterly cold wind seeming to come down from Goat's Hawse. The setting of Goat's Water is marvellously wild, barren and boulder strewn, in the shadow of Dow Crag's formidable cliffs it is a place to stay and admire the view but in the cold wind it is a place to keep moving.
From the water is an obvious path up to Goat's Hawse where the Scafells come into view, covered in mist suggesting that bad weather is on its way, Harter Fell still bathed in sunshine is unmistakeable. On the path upwards to the summit of Dow Crag, its rock face looks more impressive the closer you get to it. The summit of Dow Crag is what you would expect, a scramble over naked, greasy rock takes you to the highest point, no room for a cairn here. The scramble off the summit is always more interesting in a gusting wind with an obvious long way down all the way to Goat's Water.
I walked along the edge of the cliffs to get the best views down the rocky gullies, not quite as close to the edge as I would have got to on a less windy day. The Old Man is clearly visible as is the quarry on its southern flank, Coniston water is visible but hidden seen lengthways, Blind Tarn is classically circular sitting in its corrie. By the time I reached the cairn on Brown Pike the clouds had lifted from Scafell and large patches of snow were visible on its top, but generally it felt quite a lot warmer than it did down at Goat's Water.
I dropped back down to the Walna Scar Road and made my way back to Boo Tarn, by the time I got there it was warm enough to be down to my tee-shirt. I turned up the sign-posted path to the Old Man, in a short space of time I had to start putting on additional clothing as it quickly got cold again in spite of the effort of climbing up the steep slope. The path is green with very little erosion – obviously one of the connoisseur paths although personally I prefer the interest of the paths through the old quarries.
Just before reaching the summit, the text-book setting of Blind Tarn came into view along with Dow Crag's rock face, just as impressive from this direction. The Old Man's large summit man and its plinth were usually busy, the view along the ridge to Swirl How was unusually clear.
I walked along the whale back ridge of Brim Fell, still trying to work out my descent, how far could I get in the available daylight? I didn't think I could descend from Levers Hawse (before climbing Swirl How), there is no path marked on the map. At the bottom of the Hawse is a large cairn and I walked towards a smaller old cairn in the direction of Levers Water, as I reached it I could see a line of cairns going downwards. This is obviously a well established path, extremely eroded and in fact in the process of being repaired by the Path Fairies, there were actually two Scottish pixies working their magic as I made my way downwards.
The path doesn't go down to the shore of Levers Water but traverses the flanks of Brim Fell and doesn't get down to the water until the dam. Just before the dam are a couple of old Copper Mine shafts, they could be considered as man made scars but I find it fascinating that these neat rectangular four feet wide and ten feet high gashes in solid rock could have been hacked out without modern tools.
I was expecting a footway to cross the dam but you have to drop down to water level and cross the lip of the dam as water splashes over it. Below the dam the stream falls spectacularly over rocky cataracts and you can walk down a grassy tongue to stand below the waterfalls. Whilst standing there I noticed an interesting looking path on the other side of the stream so I headed back up towards the dam and crossed the stream.
I didn't find the path because I was distracted by another group of mine shafts, all equally neat and rectangular and having gone out of my way I realised I was close to Boulder Valley, another interesting place. I find large boulders fascinating, the amount of energy required to move some of these large rocks to their current resting places is unimaginable, especially the monstrous Pudding Stone.
This area of Boulder Valley and Coppermines Valley is full of interest, the natural wild nature of the crags and waterfalls complemented by the untidy but equally wild debris left by mining and quarrying. Just as you are getting close to the village the stream has to struggle through a rocky ravine as impressive as any to be found in the Lake District.
Suddenly, you are back in the small village of Coniston.
Andy Wallace 26th October 2002