Wednesday 14 June 2023 - A Great British Ridge Walk – Number 11 – Dow Crag and Coniston Old Man

I've done this walk many times before and couldn't resist getting out in the ongoing fine weather, combining the walk with a visit to Jim and Cathy in Water Yeat.

Since my last visit, the end of the Walna Scar Road has been sanitised into a car park costing £5 for up to 4 hours, and £8.50 for up to a day. Apparently the popularity of the Lake District during the Covid era has been such that without proper control, parking has been a real problem. It's quite simple - if you disagree, park elsewhere, and I did see a few folk walking up and down the hill to Walna Scar.

I walked all the way up the Walna Scar Road to the ridge to Brown Pike.

Looking across to the southern end of Coniston Water

The gentle gradient of the Walna Scar Road stretches out ahead

Another view back to Coniston Water

Wild Thyme lined the path

The path at the Walna Scar col leads to the Duddon valley; I turned right to ascend Brown Pike

Harter Fell and the Scafell summits come into view here

From Brown Pike, the path continues upwards to Buck Pike, with the OMC now clear in the distance

From Buck Pike it's an easy stroll across to Dow Crag, 

albeit there's a short scramble to reach the summit (just right of centre)

En route, a steep gully that some brave folk use as a means of ascent!

There's a good view from the summit of Dow Crag, across to OMC and down to Goat's Water

The Scafells from Dow Crag

I then chose the easy gradient of the Brim Fell path, with good views back to Dow Crag

Nice views to Seathwaite Tarn and Harter Fell

Brim Fell and OMC

Dow Crag from OMC

OMC summit, looking back towards Brim Fell

Coniston Water, from my lunch spot on OMC

Before descending steeply to Low Water I pondered the alleged absence of upland birds in the Lake District, suggested in a book that Sue is currently reading - Wild Fell, by Lee Schofield. That wasn't my experience today. I saw lots of mainly small birds such as wheatears, meadow pipits and skylarks, with many seagulls of several types on the summit. I didn't spot any plovers, curlew, oyster catchers or grouse.

It's a steep, zigzagy path to Low Water. Having seen only nine people in the 3 hours or so that it took me to reach OMC's summit, I now met many folk (including the bikini and flipflop brigade) enduring the unpleasant ascent.

I had good views down to Coniston Water and village

The 'tourist path' up OMC is being upgraded; can you spot some of the many 

bags of rock on the path, awaiting installation?

If you click on this picture you should be able to make out the Wild Swimmer of Low Water. 

Had Sue been with me there would have been a long delay at this point

The next, and last, two pictures of this sequence show mining detritus beside the path leading down from Low Water, a reminder that hundreds of quarrymen and miners lived here not so long ago, before the age of Lake District tourism.

By the time I got back to the car at the Walna Scar Road car park, I'd covered 11km and ascended some 700 metres, taking a little over four and a half hours. Here's my route (click on the map for a better image).

Previous reports on this walk (or similar) can be found here and here, to name just two, but I have been up Coniston Old Man loads of times.

Before heading for a supermarket then home to cook dinner before a SWOG evening walk, I had the pleasure of calling in to see Jim and Cathy, who were already students in the TDHHC (UMIST) hiking club when I went to UMIST in 1967. So we've been friends for over 55 years. Frightening! Their house is in a nice spot, with ready access to the lake. The view below is what they enjoy from their chairs in the garden.

It was good to see you, albeit briefly, and I hope to come again soon.