The Coniston Horseshoe
Photo: © Lee McCoy
Start Walna Scar Road car park
Getting here Parking: Walna Scar Road, Coniston (paid, rough track), 0.0 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 505 stops at Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre; from there it is 1.8 km and 179 m of ascent to this start. And the same back: about 24.3 km in all, with the walk. Getting there ↓ · Route map ↓
Hardest part Severe distance: 20.8 km — a long day out. Hands for a few steps: the Prison Band, and the last steps to Dow Crag (km 6.2–8.1 and km 15.6–16.0).
Before you choose
- Prison Band, the rocky climb from Swirl Hawse onto Swirl How, is steep and eroded with the ground falling away both sides — care needed in mist or wind.
- Dow Crag's summit sits above a serious east face over Goat's Water — keep slightly right (west) of the top as you climb south from Goat's Hawse and well back from the gullies and edge, especially in poor visibility.
- The Grey Friar → Calf Cove → Levers Hawse leg is largely pathless and the round's hardest navigation — careful map-and-compass work in clag.
- The short final climb to Dow Crag from Goat's Hawse has scrambly steps with moderate exposure — stay on the path and away from the edge.
- Great Carrs sits among a confusing tangle of high paths — Swirl How, the Prison Band, Wet Side Edge and Wrynose. In mist it is easy to take the wrong ridge or drift toward the eastern edge. Navigate by compass.
- Grey Friar stands off the main ridge and its paths are faint; the ground between it and Swirl How is awkward, and one onward line from Swirl How appears to head straight over a cliff face. In mist it is easy to lose the route or drift onto steep ground. Navigate by compass and don't trust a vague trod.
- Great Carrs: Right by the summit the ground drops suddenly in crags and steep scree into the Greenburn corrie — the aircraft memorial sits on this very brink. In wind or cloud keep well back from the edge; the flat top gives almost no warning before the drop.
Conditions on this route
We score every Lakeland Wainwright each morning on cloud, wind, rain and underfoot, and this route crosses 7 of them. The worst summit governs the verdict — a route is only as kind as its roughest top.
Modelled guidance — not a substitute for the mountain forecast or your own judgement. See how every fell ranks today →
Daylight & turnaround
Daylight is short from October to February — check today’s sunrise and sunset before you set off, and carry a head-torch and spare batteries. On short days, decide your turn-back time before you start.
See also walking in bad weather and today’s conditions.
Route map
1 Wetherlam2 Swirl How3 Great Carrs4 Grey Friar5 Brim Fell6 The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)7 Dow Crag8 Buck Pike - Seathwaite Fell9 Brown Pike
Easy 74%Moderate 22%Hard 4%Severe
Heights on this chart and its high point are read from the track itself (a terrain model sampled along the line, or a GPS recording), so a top can differ from its listed height, usually reading lower.
Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
The elevation profile is under the map; the stage notes follow.
The walk, stage by stage
- 1
Walna Scar Road car park → Wetherlam (6.2 km, 689 m)
© Lee McCoy · 2 photographs - 2
Wetherlam → Swirl How (1.9 km, 177 m)
Decision pointFrom Wetherlam follow the clear ridge path west-south-west, descending steadily along the south side of knobbly Black Sails, below its top, to the saddle of Swirl Hawse. From the saddle the ridge steepens sharply — this is Prison Band — a rocky climb of short, steep, eroded steps on broken stone, heading west-south-west; zig-zag carefully, hands for balance, in short pulls to Swirl How's large, crescent-shaped summit cairn.
Easy to get wrongPrison Band, the climb from Swirl Hawse to Swirl How, is the crux of this leg — rocky and eroded with the ground falling away on both sides; in mist or wind take extra care and keep to the main line. Swirl Hawse is a path junction — make sure you take the climb west-south-west to Swirl How.
© Lee McCoy · 3 photographs - 3
Swirl How → Great Carrs (0.6 km, 6 m)
Decision pointA short, airy ridge: from Swirl How follow the obvious path NW along the curving crest above Greenburn, dropping slightly then rising. You pass the memorial and wreckage of the 1944 Canadian bomber just below the crest, then a small cairn marks Great Carrs.
Easy to get wrongStay on the crest — avoid the narrow trods that drift right toward the steep ground above Greenburn.
© Lee McCoy · 2 photographs - 4
Great Carrs → Grey Friar (1.2 km, 72 m)
Decision pointFrom Great Carrs retrace a few metres, then bear W/SW on a faint path over open grass-and-rock moorland to Grey Friar — a rounded dome with rocky tops and several cairns near the summit, including the main cairn and the distinctive 'Matterhorn Rock'.
Easy to get wrongThe path fades here. In clear weather Grey Friar is obvious ahead; in mist take a bearing and keep slightly left of the steep drop back into Greenburn — stay on the broad upland, not the edge.
© Lee McCoy - 5
Grey Friar → Brim Fell (3.0 km, 149 m)
Decision pointThe trickiest navigation of the round. From Grey Friar head back ENE to regain the clearer path toward Swirl Band, then leave it at the Fairfield saddle for a grassy path, pathless in places, that contours around the upper rim of Calf Cove — above its wet ground but below the rocky rim of Swirl Band — until it meets the distinct path that drops from Swirl How to Levers Hawse. Follow that down to Levers Hawse (a narrow rocky col, big drops to Seathwaite Tarn one side and Levers Water the other), then take the cairned path south — steep at first on broken stone, easing along the ridge — to Brim Fell's huge summit cairn.
Easy to get wrongThis is the leg to get wrong in clag. After Grey Friar you leave the main path at the Fairfield saddle to cut across Calf Cove — keep Seathwaite Tarn to your right-front (SW), Levers Hawse ahead, and don't drift too high back toward Swirl How. Aim to pick up the Swirl How–Levers Hawse path; that's your handrail to the col.
© Lee McCoy · 2 photographs - 6
Brim Fell → The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man) (0.8 km, 20 m)
Decision pointAn easy, well-cairned link: from Brim Fell's big cairn follow the wide path south along the ridge, gently undulating over minor rocky steps, to the Old Man's rocky summit plateau (the column, big cairn, usually crowds).
Easy to get wrongLow Water and the scarred mine zig-zags are below to your left (east) — stay on the broad ridge path, not the mine descents, until the summit.
© Lee McCoy - 7
The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man) → Dow Crag (1.9 km, 188 m)
Decision pointFrom the Old Man summit take the path NW dropping toward Goat's Hawse — eroded stone and steep zig-zags first, then gentler — to the well-defined col (paths converge from Old Man, Brim Fell and Dow Crag; Goat's Water below). Cross it and take the clear path climbing south up the ridge to Dow Crag; it steepens with short scrambly steps near the top (hands helpful, exposure moderate if you stay on the path) to the rocky summit cairn above the great east face over Goat's Water.
Easy to get wrongAt Goat's Hawse, orient before climbing — three paths meet there. Near Dow Crag's summit keep slightly right (west) to avoid the gullies and crags dropping on your left (east) to Goat's Water — a serious edge.
© Lee McCoy · 4 photographs - 8
Dow Crag → Buck Pike - Seathwaite Fell (0.6 km, 8 m)
Decision pointContinue south along the ridge on the main worn line over small ups and downs to Buck Pike, a small rocky rise with a modest cairn and a fine view back to Dow Crag.
Easy to get wrongThe path keeps a sensible distance from the steep eastern edge above Goat's Water — don't drift left (east) toward the gullies, especially in mist.
If you need to get offThe map shows no mapped way off between Dow Crag and the Walna Scar Road, which the ridge path meets at about 17.3 km, past Buck Pike and Brown Pike: back or on, and on it is about 1.7 km to the Walna Scar Road, which the walk then follows down to the car park; not walked for this guide.
- 9
Buck Pike - Seathwaite Fell → Brown Pike (0.7 km, 18 m)
Decision pointKeep on the ridge path south; it descends gently then rises slightly to Brown Pike's small summit cairn, where the ground begins to feel less severe and Walna Scar Road comes into view below to the east.
Easy to get wrongStraightforward — keep to the crest line over the gentle drop and rise to Brown Pike.
If you need to get offThe map shows no mapped way off between Buck Pike and the Walna Scar Road, which the ridge path meets at about 17.3 km, past Brown Pike: back or on, and on it is about 1.1 km to the Walna Scar Road, which the walk then follows down to the car park; not walked for this guide.
Brown Pike → Finish (3.8 km, 5 m)
Decision pointFrom Brown Pike follow the ridge path down west-south-west over grass and stone to the pass, where it meets the broad Walna Scar Road track, and turn left (east). Follow the track east — wide and stony, and downhill nearly all the way — past Cove Bridge and a small stone shelter, back to the Fellgate gate and car park. (To finish in Coniston instead, carry on down the lane from the car park into the village.)
Easy to get wrongFollow the ridge path down to the pass for Walna Scar Road — don't carry straight on south over Walna Scar. Then it's left (east) onto the track back to Fellgate.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Walked in part · km 0.0–1.1, km 15.8–20.8 from the map
Make it easier or harder
Easier: Quickest bail: from the Old Man of Coniston, take the popular quarry / tourist path straight down to Coniston, omitting the Dow Crag arm — a much shorter day that still bags the big tops.
Why this direction: Walked Wetherlam-first (anticlockwise): the steep ground (Lad Stones, Prison Band) and the route-finding come early, leaving the long, easy Walna Scar Road as the finish. Clockwise (Dow Crag first) is also common.
Summits bagged (9)
- 1Wetherlam763 m
- 2Swirl How802 m
- 3Great Carrs785 m
- 4Grey Friar773 m
- 5Brim Fell796 m
- 6The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)802 m
- 7Dow Crag778 m
- 8Buck Pike - Seathwaite Fell744 m
- 9Brown Pike682 m
In the order you walk them — the same numbers the elevation profile, the stage notes and the pacing table use.
More about this walk
Lee walked it Wetherlam-first, from Miners Bridge to Dow Crag; the start from the car park and the southern end over Buck Pike, Brown Pike and the Walna Scar Road finish are from the map — the full Coniston round over all the major tops, a long and serious mountain day. The trickiest navigation is the Grey Friar–Calf Cove–Levers Hawse traverse and the Lad Stones ground; carry OS Explorer OL6 and a compass for the clag.
Conditions and timing
Check live conditions in the “From the fells” panel, on MWIS (opens in new tab) and the Met Office mountain forecast (opens in new tab) before you set off.
Getting there and back
Parking
2 more places to park near the start
Positions are approximate.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at Coniston Old Station from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 33% were bought before 10am (our count of FOI/2026.500 ticket data). Contains public sector information provided by the Lake District National Park Authority and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
Buses
The 505 stops at Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre. From there it is 1.8 km and 179 m of ascent to this start — a walk in before the walk. And the same back: about 24.3 km in all, with the walk. As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Kendal (505): Tuesday to Sunday 20:24. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 12 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
The 505 passes this route at 2.4 km (Coniston, outside The Ruskin Centre, 850 m off the line).
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Toilets and refreshments
The essentials
- Arrival Walna Scar Road car park, where the walk starts, at the end of a rough track above Coniston. Pay and display, cards only (RingGo 37321). (Lake District National Park car-parks directory, checked 11 August 2026)
- Toilets No toilets are mapped within 250 m of the start. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Refreshments No café or pub is mapped within 250 m of the start: bring what you need. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Limitation Prison Band, the climb onto Swirl How, is steep and eroded with the ground falling away on both sides, and Dow Crag’s summit sits above a serious east face. (our route notes (this route's own warnings), checked 28 September 2026)
Everything mapped near the start
At Walna Scar Road, Coniston (paid, rough track), the closest parking we hold to where this route starts:
Distances are straight lines from the car park, not walking routes. Opening hours change; none of this is checked daily.
Mapped as nearby on OpenStreetMap too, as of 13 September 2026, within 250 m of the start and not already listed above:
Also mapped within reach: 2 information boards.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (opens in new tab), ODbL.
Water, shelter & getting away
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors — an absent marker does not mean the facility isn’t there.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Planning detail
How each grade on this page is set, and the timings stage by stage.
Difficulty profile
Severe overall — hardest: Length; terrain not assessed; exposure not assessed on the ground
Walked in part. From Miners Bridge over Wetherlam, the Prison Band, Great Carrs, Grey Friar, Brim Fell, the Old Man and Dow Crag on foot in August 2024. The first kilometre from the car park, and the southern end over Buck Pike and Brown Pike and down the Walna Scar Road, were not walked for this guide.
Five independent axes, not one score. One of the five was set on the ground; the rest are computed from the recorded track and the map, which measures the line rather than surveying the ground. This line was walked in part, so a grade set on the ground covers the stretches Lee walked; km 0.0–1.1, km 15.8–20.8 are from the map.
How we grade: each axis is Easy, Moderate, Hard or Severe, and a route between two bands takes the higher one. Length: under 8 km, 8–14 km, 14–20 km, over 20 km. Steepness, the steepest 500 m of the track: under 15%, 15–25%, 25–35%, over 35%. Terrain, navigation and exposure are judged rather than measured, and each note says why. How we grade.
Pacing
| Summit | Cumulative | Ascent | Time (fast–steady) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Wetherlam | 6.2 km | 689 m | 2:23–3:10 |
| 2Swirl How | 8.1 km | 867 m | 3:03–4:04 |
| 3Great Carrs | 8.7 km | 873 m | 3:11–4:14 |
| 4Grey Friar | 9.9 km | 945 m | 3:33–4:44 |
| 5Brim Fell | 12.9 km | 1094 m | 4:25–5:52 |
| 6The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man) | 13.7 km | 1114 m | 4:36–6:08 |
| 7Dow Crag | 15.7 km | 1302 m | 5:18–7:03 |
| 8Buck Pike - Seathwaite Fell | 16.3 km | 1310 m | 5:26–7:14 |
| 9Brown Pike | 17.0 km | 1328 m | 5:36–7:28 |
| Finish | 20.8 km | 1333 m | 6:23–8:29 |
A fast–steady range from Naismith’s rule, deliberately on the slow side. Breaks, weather, rough ground and the slowest person in your party all add to it. How we time walks.
Access & barriers
Can a dog, a buggy or dodgy knees manage this route?
- Buggy: No mapped stiles, but the ground underfoot has not been assessed; not a buggy line on what we know.
- Knees: A sustained ~28% descent over 250 m around the 14.6 km mark — a little jarring on tired knees.
With a dog
Hardest for a dog here: drops and exposed ground (estimated from the map). The steepest stretch is a sustained climb of about 31% around the 7.8 km mark.
- Drops and exposed ground: Not assessed on the ground; the map suggests Hard. 18 mapped crag feature(s) near the line — check the airy sections.
- Rock and scrambling: Hands for a few steps: the Prison Band, and the last steps to Dow Crag (km 6.2–8.1 and km 15.6–16.0). Ground underfoot: Not assessed.
- Stiles and gates: Only gates and kissing gates are mapped: no stile a dog can’t get through. That is the barriers alone; check the route’s steep or rocky ground before you bring a dog. (OpenStreetMap, mapped as of 9 July 2026)
- Ways off early: None recorded for this route.
- Livestock, shade and water: Not recorded for this route yet. We never call a stream safe for a dog to drink, so carry enough for both of you. The lead rules, and what to do around cattle, are on dogs on the fells.
On the line: 5 gates
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 9 July 2026. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Places to stay near this start
- Bank Ground Farm (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 2.7 km
Also nearby, but not independent
- Coniston Holly How YHA (opens in new tab) hostelabout 1.7 km
- YHA Coppermines (opens in new tab) hostelabout 1.6 km
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from the route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Coniston — 1.4 km from this start
- Walks from Tom Gill waterfalls (Glen Mary) — 4.4 km from this start
Straight-line distance from this walk’s start. Those lists hold the routes we have mapped and every Wainwright and Outlying fell within about 5 km of the town, ranked nearest first.
