The Old Man of Coniston, up and down from Coniston
Start Coniston, Ruskin Avenue car park
Getting here Parking: Coniston, Ruskin Avenue (paid), 0.0 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 505 stops at Coniston, outside The Crown Inn, a 50 m walk from this start. Parking & buses ↓
Hardest part Severe steepness: Steepest sustained descent about 36% around the 4.9 km mark.
Before you choose
- On the way up, between about 3.1 and 4.3 km, the path crosses ground OpenStreetMap maps as scree.
- On the way down, OpenStreetMap maps a crag edge about 4 m from the path at about 4.7 km, just below the top, and more crags within about 60 m of the line between about 5.6 and 6.3 km (among them Colt Crag and Stubthwaite Crag) and near 7.6 km.
- The path down passes Low Water Quarry (about 5.1 km), a disused working that OpenStreetMap maps about 30 m from the line. Keep to the path.
Hazard & incident notes: The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)
Conditions on this route
We score every Lakeland Wainwright each morning on cloud, wind, rain and underfoot, and this route crosses 1 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 The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)
Easy 40%Moderate 37%Hard 22%Severe 2%
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
Coniston, Ruskin Avenue car park → The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man) (4.5 km, 746 m)
From the Ruskin Avenue car park, walk west through the village, along the B5285 and Yewdale Road, then Station Road, to the foot of the Walna Scar Road at about 0.5 km. Follow it south-west and then west-south-west, a lane at first and then a byway, out onto the open fell. At about 2.5 km leave it on a path that heads north-west and then west up the slope, over Hussey Well Beck at about 2.85 km. From about 3.4 km the path turns north-north-west and climbs past Crag O Stile and up by Little Arrow Edge to the trig pillar on the top at about 4.5 km.
WaypointsRuskin Avenue car park, Yewdale Road, the Walna Scar Road, the path off it at about 2.5 km, Hussey Well Beck, Little Arrow Edge, the summit trig pillar of the Old Man of Coniston (802 m).
Easy to get wrongMany paths are mapped on this fell: the desk count for the whole line is 27 path junctions near it, so check each turn against the map. Between about 3.1 and 4.3 km the path crosses ground OpenStreetMap maps as scree.
If you need to get offThe line is on village roads and the Walna Scar Road to about 2.5 km. The way off is back the way you came, never more than about 4.5 km to the village.
The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man) → Finish (4.3 km, 13 m)
From the top, leave east on the main public footpath, steeply at first: the steepest descent of the walk, about 36% sustained, is near 4.9 km, with a crag mapped a few metres from the path just below the top. The path passes Low Water Quarry at about 5.1 km and carries on down east-north-east through the old quarry ground to about 6.5 km. From there, footpaths lead east, through a gate in a wall at about 7.5 km (the stile mapped beside it is on a fence the path does not cross), and past Coniston Waterfall, then a track heads south-east, past The Sun, to Yewdale Road. Follow it and the B5285 east back to the car park.
WaypointsThe summit, the main path down, Low Water Quarry, the gate at about 7.5 km, Coniston Waterfall, The Sun, Yewdale Road, the Ruskin Avenue car park (finish).
If you need to get offThe line itself is the way down: the main path from the top to the village, about 4.3 km.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Walked in part · km 0.6–4.4 from the map
Summits bagged (1)
More about this walk
The start is the Ruskin Avenue car park in the middle of the village; the Crown Hotel bus stop is about 20 m away.
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 from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 10% at Ruskin Avenue and 33% at Coniston Old Station 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.
If the parking is full
If the first one is full, these overlap least in our model. The 3 below sit in different places or are different kinds of parking, so a busy morning at one does not mean a busy morning at all of them.
- Walna Scar Road, Coniston (paid, rough track) — joins the loop at about km 1.8 of 8.8: a 30 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Coniston, Ruskin Avenue (paid) — at the start
- Coppermines and Old Man Car Park (paid) — joins the loop at about km 1 of 8.8: a 120 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
We never say whether anywhere has spaces today. Walks to the line are measured along mapped paths (OpenStreetMap), not in a straight line. How we choose these places.
No signal when you get there? RoutePark keeps this list on your phone: choose this walk’s GPX at home, keep it, and it opens offline.
Buses
The 505 stops at Coniston, outside The Crown Inn, a 50 m walk from this start. This walk starts and ends in Coniston, so there is no bus to catch back to the start.
The 505 passes this route at 0.0 km (Coniston, in The Crown, 10 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 The Crown Hotel bus stop, in the middle of the village, is about 20 m from the start; the Ruskin Avenue car park is at the start. 17 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 15 October 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
- Toilets Paid toilets are mapped about 15 m from the start. 13 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 15 October 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
- Refreshments Cafes and pubs are mapped within about 70 m of the start, the Crown Inn among them. Opening hours are not recorded here. (OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass, 15 October 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
- Limitation A mountain path with scree mapped beside it on the way up and a steep descent (about 36% near 4.9 km): not a pushchair route. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 15 October 2026)
Everything mapped near the start
At Coniston, Ruskin Avenue (paid), 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.
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: Steepness; terrain not assessed; exposure not assessed on the ground
Five independent axes, not one score. None of them was set on the ground: they are computed from the recorded track and the map, which measures the line rather than surveying the ground.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man) | 4.5 km | 746 m | 2:09–2:51 |
| Finish | 8.8 km | 759 m | 3:02–4:02 |
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 long, steep ~44% drop over 250 m around the 4.7 km mark — hard on the knees.
With a dog
Hardest for a dog here: drops and exposed ground (estimated from the map). The steepest stretch is a sustained descent of about 36% around the 4.9 km mark.
- Drops and exposed ground: Not assessed on the ground; the map suggests Hard. 9 mapped crag feature(s) near the line — check the airy sections.
- 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 2026-10-15)
- Rock and scrambling: Ground underfoot: Not assessed.
- 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: 8 gates · 1 kissing gate
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 2026-10-15. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Coniston — 0.2 km from this start
- Walks from Tom Gill waterfalls (Glen Mary) — 3.0 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.
