The Lakes, day 3 – The Old Man of Coniston

Wednesday 17th July 2002

As is usual at this time of the year I have run out of walks to talk about so I am going to return to the series that I started in March this year. I was describing my very first visit to the Lake District ten years ago, but I only described the first two days of my holiday before actually going to the Lake District again at Easter and retracing some of my steps of those first two days. At the start of my third day in the Lake District I was staying at the Coniston Coppermines Youth Hostel (the same one I stayed at this year) and as I was leaving I almost left my shampoo in the hostel. That is something that I've done a lot of times before on other holidays and is really annoying. I feel as if I have left loads of stuff strewn across the country over the years, particularly bottles of shampoo. I now make a point of meticulously scouring the place I’ve been staying to make sure I haven’t left anything behind, and often still spend the first hour of the walk worrying that I’ve left something behind. It really is ridiculous that I seem to keep on losing things, but nothing compares with losing my glasses on my first ever day in the Lake District.

On that day I lost a pair of glasses on Loughrigg and I’d still not given up hope of finding them again. I kept thinking about going back to Loughrigg to look for them, but even then I had little hope of success until the bracken had all died off, which wouldn’t be until the winter. However I still harboured the hope that I could go back to Loughrigg on the last day of my holiday and find my glasses. Besides continuing to think about my lost glasses I walked from the Coniston Fells over the Old Man of Coniston all the way to Eskdale. This is a walk that I’ve done several times since in both directions always varying my route, but my first time I kept things simple. From the hostel I descended the valley road slightly to the Miner’s Bridge over Church Beck before joining the popular route up Coniston Old Man that, according to Wainwright, “is the way the crowds go: the day trippers, the courting couples, troops of earnest Boy Scouts, babies and grandmothers, the lot”, and on this occasion: me as well. I commented in my diary at the time that this was a bit of a slog and that these climbs were really taking it out of me. I guess some things never change.

I seem to remember the weather as being bad with low cloud over the fells (unless I’m confusing it with another day!) and I had poor views as I walked past the remains of the copper mines and past Low Water until finally I reached the summit of the Old Man of Coniston. After resting up at the top I walked along the broad grassy ridge to Brim Fell and then having bagged the flat top I descended steeply to Goats Hawse. After crossing over the pass I climbed onto what I described in my diary as the other peaks. These are the tops on the undulating ridge that includes Dow Crag, Buck Pike & Brown Pike before dropping down to the Walna Scar Pass where I turned right onto the track that took me down into the Duddon Valley past a digger working on the track and, despite finding muddy ground underfoot, I crossed the stepping stones over the River Duddon and over the hill into Eskdale. For some reason I ignored the striking Harter Fell just to my right and stayed on the bridlepath passing all the way over into Eskdale. By taking an unwavering course to Eskdale I'd gotten there a little early so after reaching the Doctor Bridge, beside the River Esk, I turned left instead of right and had a walk along the river.

I had in mind to look for Stanley Force, but I didn't really have a clue what I was doing, or where I was going. When I reached St Catherine’s Church, a plain structure built of the local granite, I sat there on a seat looking across the river. I remember the weather being good at this point with the sun shining overhead and the small trains of the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway could be clearly heard in the distance. The waterfall that I had been looking for was actually not far away from me, just across the river, but it would be another nine years before I finally located it. This walk was full of contrasts. It started in the rugged mountains of the Coniston Fells amidst the remains of 19th Century mines, but ended in the sylvan beauty of Eskdale on a gorgeous afternoon. Amidst all the rush to bag fells it is important to stop and enjoy your surroundings, with the valley bottoms being just as delightful as the fell tops and there are few valley bottoms more delightful than Eskdale.