Old Man of Coniston 6.6 km

Great walk up the Old Man of Coniston (803 m) with excellent views of Coniston Water, Scafell in the distance, a landscape dotted with mostly abandoned quarries, and the Lake District National Park all around you. This is one of the least difficult walks up the Old Man of Coniston as you start at the Walna Scar parking lot at around 230 m. There are no facilities on the way.
You start at the Walna Scar parking lot at the end of a narrow and steep asphalt road from Coniston. You first walk along a broad gravel road slightly upwards on the east side of the mountain. After about 1.3 km you keep to the left on a less easy, stony track up the mountain. You soon arrive to abandoned slate quarries, and a bit further up you find ruins from houses and cable cars for the transport of slate. You continue further and at about 550 m altitude you arrive to a saddle point with straight ahead lake Low Water below the Old Man of Coniston. You walk to the lake for a view and then continue up the mountain ridge on the northeast side of the summit. Great views towards Coniston Water open up on the left and after 250 m of further climbing you arrive to the summit, marked with a cairn and a marker stone. From the summit, the views are great. We walked a bit west on the ridge to get a good view of Dow Crag, but then returned to the cairn, and went down on a less obvious path south. On this path you soon lose sight of the summit as you go down, but you continuously have a good view of the scenery south up to the Irish Sea and even the other side of Morecambe Bay (with good weather). On some points you have a good view of the Bursting Stone Quarry, and the parking lot where you started. After 2.2. km from the summit, you arrive to Walna Scar Road, a broad gravel track, and from there it is only about 700 m to get back to the start.