The Old Man of Coniston
1 SD301975 Head south from The Yewdale Inn on the main road over the beck. Turn right up Station Road then immediately past Coniston Lodge, take a dead-end road left, then up some steps right of houses as the road ends. A tarmac path under a high slate-slabbed retaining wall contours then descends to join a narrow lane on a hairpin bend.
2 SD300973 Take the upper track past a row of cottages, then the upper track again at another hairpin junction. This bends right over a former railway line then turn left onto Heathwaite Farm’s driveway.
3 SD295968 Enter the farmyard, and follow signs to exit into pasture. Cross a ford by the next gate, then head diagonally right to a stile by a small stand of trees. A faint track through the grass briefly leads uphill then roughly follows the tree-lined stream line uphill (easily missed – look for a FP arrow on a wooden post). Stay left of wall remnants as stream bends sharp right and go through a gate. Maintain your line to the top of pasture.
4 SD290965 Cross over a track and take a faint trod through open moorland. Aim just left of the mining spoil heap on the Old Man’s western flanks, then cross some boardwalk over a marshy patch. Bend rightwards towards the Walna Scar track – a grassy track parallels this then crosses over it by the bottom of the gated quarry track. 5 SD282968
Zigzag up the fellside on a grassy path left of the quarry track and to the left of a stream. This drifts leftwards across the grain of the hillside as it rises, veering gently away from the quarry. Skirt rightwards around a shallow grassy bowl just below and left of a large spoil heap. At a tiny cairn, head directly uphill over almost trackless ground to a stream, then take a faint path right.
6 SD276972 As the path reaches a flat grassy terrace, fork left and head more directly up the ridgeline. It’s fairly trackless, so choose your preferred line of least resistance. Take a clear crossing path rightwards onto the broad southerly ridge, then up to the trig point and tall summit ‘cairn-on-a-stone’ platform.
7 SD272978 Take a path leading southeast from the summit. Turn sharp left by a large cairn at the eastern end of the summit plateau, then zigzag steeply down to Low Water.
8 SD275982 Bear sharply eastwards through a slight saddle between two broad outcrops, then descend through a ruined quarry. Cross over the grounded wires of an old aerial ropeway then descend to the right of the main building ruins. Cross a couple more grounded iron cables before leaving the former quarry workings.
9 SD284980 At Crowberry Haws, the path becomes less steep and rough. Continue past a side-path left, then at the start of a hairpin bend right, take a narrower path left, down away from the crowds heading back to the car park on Walna Scar.
10 SD292982 This descends into the Levers Water Beck valley, which becomes the Church Beck as it enters a narrow ravine. Stay on the west bank and descend through Dixon Ground Farm to a roadhead. Continue on this to a junction by The Sun Hotel. Turn left to descend into Coniston.