The Sun Pub Walk (Coniston)
Start Coniston Village
Getting here Parking: Coniston, Ruskin Avenue (paid), 0.1 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 505 stops at Coniston, outside The Crown Inn, a 90 m walk from this start. Getting there ↓ · Route map ↓
Hardest part Moderate terrain: Village lanes plus rocky, uneven mine tracks by Church Beck. Moderate – our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet
Before you choose
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.
Access & barriers
Can a dog, a buggy or dodgy knees manage this route?
- Buggy: Not a pushchair route.
- Knees: No sustained steep descent in the track’s height model (steepest 250 m about 15%). Steps, wet rock and the surface underfoot are not assessed; your own knees still matter.
With a dog
Nothing here stands out as hard for a dog.
- 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 25 September 2026)
- Rock and scrambling: Ground underfoot: Moderate – our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet. Village lanes plus rocky, uneven mine tracks by Church Beck.
- Drops and exposed ground: Easy – our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet. Low-level throughout; no exposure to speak of.
- 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: 12 gates · 6 kissing gates
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 25 September 2026. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Route map
Easy 100%ModerateHardSevere
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
Start → Finish (6.4 km, 202 m)
This walk’s description is being rewritten: an outside check (fact-check batch 17, 26 Sep 2026) found it described the Coppermines valley, west of the village, while the track runs east of it. Until the new description is checked, follow the map and the GPX.
If you need to get offThe map shows the line on roads to about 3.1 km and again from Shepherd's Bridge Lane at about 5.9 km; between them, on public footpaths and bridleways, the way off is back or on, never more than about 1.4 km; not walked for this guide.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Planned route · not yet walked
Make it easier or harder
Harder: The same start is the usual launch point for the Old Man of Coniston and the Coniston round.
More about this walk
Starts and finishes at The Sun, which sits right at the foot of the Old Man of Coniston ascent. No summits are bagged — this is the gentle version, for the view and the pub.
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.
- Coniston, Bluebird Car & Coach Park (paid) — a 290 m walk to the start
- Overflow Car Parking — joins the loop at about km 0.6 of 6.4: a 820 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Tarn Hows (NT, paid) — joins the loop at about km 3.2 of 6.4: a 720 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 90 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 0.1 km (Coniston, outside The Crown Inn, 10 m off the line). It passes again at 5.8 km.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Toilets and refreshments
The essentials
- Arrival Ruskin Avenue car park in the village, about 110 m from the start: pay and display, cards only. 112 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (Lake District National Park car-parks directory, checked 11 August 2026)
- Toilets Toilets are mapped about 85 m from the start. 87 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Refreshments The Crown Inn and the Yewdale Inn are mapped about 40 m from the start, with more in the village. Opening hours are not recorded here. 40 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Limitation Our description of the way round is being rewritten to match the track: until then, follow the map and the GPX. (our route notes (this route's own summary), checked 2 October 2026)
- Miles without Stiles The first 1.5 km of this line, from the village towards Monk Coniston, follows the National Park's Miles without Stiles route 16, rated 'for all'. (Lake District National Park, Miles without Stiles 16: Monk Coniston, checked 3 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.
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: 3 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
Moderate overall — hardest: Terrain (our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet)
Five independent axes, not one score. This route has not been walked yet, so none of them was set on the ground: three of the five are our judgement from the map and the route’s record, and the rest 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | 6.4 km | 202 m | 1:37–2:09 |
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.
Places to stay near this start
- Bank Ground Farm (opens in new tab) guest houseabout 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 — 0.1 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.
