The Old Man of Coniston & Dow Crag 30/0513

The first encounter I had with the idea of hill walking came my way as far back as 1980, when my family was holidaying in Wales, as my parents suggested we might take the Mountain Railway up Snowdon and then walk back down, a plan the 5 year old me famously nixed with the phrase 'I'm not wasting my legs!', and so it came to pass that I only did two country walks of any duration in my childhood, and didn't achieve my first summit until the age of 27. However my nieces have both gotten to the top of various big hills already, having summitted Catbells and Skiddaw respectively before they were even six months old, but all trips so far have been on the energy of their active parents carrying them, and we all think that it is time that they got to the top of their first Lakeland Fell under their own power. Younger Niece isn't massively impressed by the idea, and at age 5, I can't blame her, but at 6 and a half, Elder Niece is game, so a course is set to Coniston for four of us to have a wander into the Furness Fells.

The Old Man of Coniston & Dow Crag.  6.3 miles


The Old Man of Coniston

I had anticipated a start from Coniston itself, but Dr G knows a better place to start and we are driven up Walna Scar road, feeling like we are taking a track into the middle of nowhere, and it would be a pretty frightening ascent if we weren't in a 4x4, but the car park at the top of the metalled road is a good place to start as it helpfully lops a couple of miles, and about 150m of ascent, off the circuit. These are the considerations that you make when you are a parent, and things that wouldn't enter the head of a walker like myself, I'll just stick to carrying the bag that is far too heavy and contains enough provisions to feed all four of us. So it's a 9.40am start, from the 230m contour and the first half mile northwards is a nicely steady rise on a good path, so Elder Niece can charge off with boundless enthusiasm before the hard work starts, like a dog on a country walk going backward and forwards before settling into a steady pace. I mostly walk with My Sis as Elder Niece takes Dr G's side, and walking tales are shared, including many from their days of living in Kendal and having got up and down the Old Man before lunch when having set out from Bolton.  It's a good 80m of ascent mad when we take our first break to keep our young companion running on Twix-power, and having passed the rise of Big Hill and the outcrop of The Bell, the Copper Mines valley opens out below us, showing the scars of the ancient industry which endured for 500 years, whilst the range of the Furness Fells opens out beyond.

The Slate Workings

The hard work of the scent to The Old Man now starts in earnest as the path swings east, and we are encouraged that the folk who set off shortly before us aren't really leaving us in their wake, as having a small person in our party isn't slowing us down. It's a rocky path at a pretty continuous gradient to follow, covering about 250m of ascent over half a mile, and we did get to wonder how Elder Niece would fare over this surface, but she is short enough for any difficulty to be overcome with a bit of scrambling. The terrain gets very rocky as we arrive beneath the remnants of the slate mines, and the huge buttresses of rock which extend out beyond the path are all made of loose slate mined out since the 13th century, and are retained by thick drystone walls along the path side. It all looks like it was abandoned at rather short notice, as the associated buildings of the quarries still look robust, with machinery and tramway rails still in situ, and oddest of all the zip-line down the mountainside appears to have been felled and forgotten about, with the thick steel cables still draped down over the paths. Clearly there's no interest in retrieving the scrap metal abandoned at this altitude, but pauses are made to peer into the adits the remain on the hillside and we can all conclude that the historical miners of these parts were a hardy breed. As the path up to Low Water is made, we not that the path is starting to get a bit crowded as the quicker parties that set out after us begin to catch up, and it's quite staggering just how many families there are on the trail, so it's a handy spot for some respite by the waters of the tarn, whilst Elder Niece can remain enthusiastic with some light bouldering.

Low Water

Looking up the remaining 200m to the summit and the steep rock face that accompanies it does make you wonder why this is such a popular route, but the path traced is nicely clear, but definitely crowded, but it's slightly discouraging that the weather has glummed over somewhat, and a sharp wind is cutting in from the south. So it's impossible to make speedy progress as the path zig-zags up to meet the exposed edge, and great care is needed as the surface becomes littered with vertical outcrops of broken slate. The views as the ascent goes are spectacular though, as Low Water recedes below us, and Lever Water peeks our from further along the range with Wetherlam as the view's dominating hill, Coniston Water can be seen to its full length and Windermere gradually becomes more apparent too. At the edge the view down to the coast adds to the interest, and for a short time I think Elder Niece is starting to tire, but she is encouraged by indicating all the other kids on the mountain and being told 'you are doing so well and you are younger than all of them'. Once we get a clear line of sight to the summit without any interruptions to the path, she can soon catch us up to lead the way as she shouldn't be last one to the summit on her first fell walk. I'll take my place at the back of the group and ponder how the last 200m has taken 40 minutes to ascend whilst only covering a quarter of a mile, thus rendering the concept of distance almost meaningless on the fells, and also taking a much larger amount of energy and putting strains on my thighs and knees that I haven't felt in all my walking trips so far, but there it is, Elder Niece's first proper fell summit (and only my second!) and at 803m she has mastered the Old Man of Coniston.


Elder Niece acheives
First Lakeland Summit

An early lunch is taken at 11.50am, and the view taken in as despite the cloud, it is all staying at an altitude well above the summit, and we point out the hills and inlets of Furness, and indicate the landscape markers as far south as the nuclear power station at Heysham, and I get out Wainwright's 'Southern Fells' to use as my mountain identifier, and I can expound his virtues as a pathfinder and illustrator, whilst My Sis can decry him as a sexist old windbag, Elder Niece will eventually appreciate that we are both right! Aside from chowing time and picture taking, there's not really scope to loiter as the summit gets predictably busy, and so tracks away are to be made after the trig point has been acknowledged and other parties have borrowed me to take their photograph, and we make off north. I'd thought of a circuit over the tops of Brim Fell, Swirl How and Wetherlam as our jaunt, but that's clearly too ambitious for a little person, so the path is taken 150m down hill to the west towards the col at Goat's Hawse, and it's on this descent that she takes her only spill which embarrasses her more than hurting and she goes into one of her quieter spells, so it's not altogether difficult to persuade her to bid for another summit. So we don't take the descent down to Goat's Water (and you'd never believe it would be so easy to hide a tarn in the landscape), and instead we set our eyes up towards the impressive rock face that makes up the eastern side of Dow Crag, and to also wonder what the four folk were doing excavating the path at the top of the pass, surely this is too remote a spot for archaeology?

Dow Crag

There's another 130m to ascend to reach the top of Dow Crag as the circuit takes its southern turn, and it turns out that it's true that the second ascent of the day is much easier than the first, as a much less well trodden path is taken up, and even when the ground gets rougher, the grass has grown much longer to provide a forgiving surface beneath the feet. The view north shows that the Scafell group is shrouded in cloud, as usual, whilst Harter Fell stands out attractively nearby, but oddly views into the Duddon valley don't inspire at all, better to look south in the direction of Black Combe, or north to get a glimpse across the Firth of Solway to the Southern Uplands of Scotland. I'm not sure that it's possible to reach the 781m summit of Dow Crag as the path notionally goes across the outcrop at the top, but I don't think it would have been wise to attempt to climb up the last couple of metres despite the bouldering skills in the party, especially with a sharp wind and a very sudden drop off to our left, so we might have to walk around the top crag, but we're still count it as a summit achieved and only an hour after making her first Lakeland summit, Elder Niece claims her second. So the descent starts, rather slowly, as we go around the loose rocks at the top of Dow Crag, and we take an interest in sheep as we go, finally meeting some Herdwicks, Lakeland's virtually wild breed, immediately identifiable with their grey-brown fleece, and I start to think that I've spent so long amongst the local flocks that I can know tell the difference between a Swaledale and a Kendal Rough.

Brown Pike & Blind Tarn

There's also geology to take an interest in, and after all the igneous and metamorphic rocks on the Old Man, Dow Crag show up some sedimentary rocks, with traces of ancient water patterns and bedding layers of shells, so it's good to have a bit of variety, and the gullies which open up along the ridge edge also offer up surprising views down to Goat's Water, indicating the distance down very nicely. Continue along the ridge edge, but it's not downhill all the way, as Dow Crag has two subsidiary summits to the south, firstly there's Buck Pike at 744m, which has a better cairn and profile than many substantial fells, and it also offers the best view down towards the second subsidiary of Brown Pike at 682m, and Blind Tarn far below, and as the sun has finally burned through again, we can stop at the lea between the lower summits for a bask and a second lunch break, and despite me taking a ribbing for the amount of food that I insist on carrying, all the pizza that I brought gets eaten. Admire the views towards the west side of the Old Man before cresting our last summit and then start the descent off the ridge, losing 80m as we head towards Walna Scar, and in the tradition of all Lakeland descents we are facing in the opposite direction to that of our finishing point. There's some consternation that Walna Scar Road appears to have been pacified at its summit point, and this marks our turn for home and we encounter a couple who we met earlier in the day, and they are very impressed that Elder Niece has walked so far today, indeed so are we, she has plenty in reserve in her slight frame and we've not heard a peep of complaint either.

Heading back on Walna Scar Road

The long haul down Walna Scar road is the acid test at the end of the day of course, and it turns to rough going pretty quickly as we descend, so path repairs haven't calmed it that much, which delights Dr G as he is still trying to persuade My Sis to put it on their cycling to-do list, whilst she remains somewhat resistant. It's about 150m of descent to clear the bottom of the Dow Crag ridge, and it's steep going all the way, and when we get to a more level section we can't get speed up as our youngest party member is flagging and we're running out of Twix to keep her fired up. I'm starting to get that 'brain is already in the pub' feeling too, and stay hopeful that the next corner will give us sight of the car park, but there are a lot more turn to make before that happens, first there's the large depression of The Cove to traverse, with Torver Beck at the bottom, and then there's the rock gates to provide more rough going, and My Sis can observe that the mountain bikers that you meet on difficult tracks always seem to have one party member who is much better equipped and more enthusiastic than the others. All told the last stretch is 170m of descent over a mile or so, and it's honestly a bit of a slog, but spirits are all raised when we finally get sight of the car (it's the one with canoes on the roof) and our jolly around the Furness Fells comes to an end at 2.50pm, and I doubt we'd have gone much quicker if we hadn't had a little one in our party. There's no doubt that we all deserve our brew or ice cream when we get back to Coniston, but I don't think we'll be inspiring Elder Niece to more hill walking in the immediate future by saying 'Two down, 212 to go, eh?', she's already thinking about all the Moshi Monsters goodies that she has earned through her hard labour.

~~~

Note: I do wonder if Elder Niece will end up doing more Wainwrights than I do over the next few years, as I've only done one more than she has, and we're on level pegging if we count ones done in her lifetime, and she'll have much greater scope for getting to this part of the world than i will. I've definitely got to do a lot more Lakeland fell walking anyway, you can't be a proper walking man and not get out here at least once a year! Oh, and don't think I've given up on Younger Niece just yet, she might have not come out this time but I assure you that she will get in a hill walk before the end of 2013, and I'll promote Pendle Hill onto my schedule, if it be for that purpose alone!


1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 653.5 miles
(2013 total: 188.2 miles)