The Old Man of Coniston

At the end of May when Mark and I went to the Lake District for the long weekend we went on two great hikes. As I mentioned in the recap post we really enjoyed both of them and they will get their own pos in turn – here is the first!  On our first full day Mark recommended we climb the Old Man of Coniston, a mountain is in the lower part of the Lake District.  The unusual name comes from a combination of old words meaning “high stone” and “king’s Farm”, the first of which makes sense and the second?  Not as much.

I looked up a variety of routes up the mountain with one of my favorite apps of 2020, All Trails, and chose this circular route.  We parked in a field a bit further away from the start of the loop than the map suggested so our journey was just over six miles or 9.6km.   When doing walks or hikes Mark and I always prefer options that are loops so you can see new things the whole time.  This long route  took us by a pond called Goat’s Water and then up a very rocky slope to the summit of Brim Fell.  Then it was on a bit further up to the summit of The Old Man of Coniston which brought us to an elevation more than 2,000 feet above our starting point.   On our way up we had to be careful of our footing as there were countless loose rock but we also had to make sure to look up as there were several flocks of sheep grazing on the mountain.

The view from the top was certainly worth it, looking down over Coniston Water, the dozens of surrounding hills and from one side, even the ocean! The trail description was “This is a hard walk on good paths and tracks with steep inclines and declines” and I would say that is highlight accurate.  All in the hike took us just under three hours of moving time.  Take a look:

Would you hike Old Man of Coniston?