West Side of Coniston
Start Coniston, Lake Road
Getting here Parking: Coniston Boating Centre (LDNPA, paid), 0.1 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 505 stops at Coniston, outside John Ruskin School, a 660 m walk from this start. Parking & buses ↓
Hardest part Moderate navigation: No large featureless ground on the map; carry a map and compass for cloud — 5 path junctions near the line. Moderate – estimated from the map, not checked on the ground
Before you choose
- A kissing gate near 2.8 km, and many field gates to open.
- Near 1.9 km a short track mapped as private branches off towards Coniston Hall. The line does not take it: it stays on the public footpath, which the National Park’s Miles without Stiles route 17 follows here.
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: Nearly all of this line is on the National Park’s Miles without Stiles route 17, graded for many, which suits a sturdy all-terrain pushchair; the line leaves it only where it turns, around 2.7–3.1 km. We have not pushed one along it.
- Knees: No sustained steep descent in the track’s height model (steepest 250 m about 2%). Steps, wet rock and the surface underfoot are not assessed; your own knees still matter.
With a dog
Not every line below has been assessed. The steepest stretch is a sustained descent of about 2% around the 2.2 km mark.
- 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 2026-10-03)
- Rock and scrambling: Ground underfoot: Easy – our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet. Tarmac, stone and gravel tracks: about 96% of the line is within 25 m of the National Park’s Miles without Stiles route 17, which the park describes as smooth stone, tarmac and gravel, graded ‘for many’, with short slopes of 1:8. The turn at about 2.7–3.1 km leaves it on a mapped public footpath. Set at the desk on 4 Oct 2026, not on the ground; the desk model’s ‘~30% pathless’ counted the tarmac lanes as pathless, because its map query reads paths and tracks but not roads.
- Drops and exposed ground: Not assessed on the ground; the map suggests Easy. No mapped crags on or beside the line.
- 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: 10 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 2026-10-03. 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
Coniston, Lake Road → Coniston Hall (1.6 km, 7 m)
We have written these directions from the map, not on foot. From the lake end of Lake Road, by the Bluebird Café, follow the path beside Lake Road north-west, over Church Beck, for about 0.4 km. Turn left onto the shared path, a public footpath open to cycles, through a gate at about 0.45 km and past the John Ruskin School. Follow it south-west for about 0.3 km; it then bends round past Hagg Wood. From about 1.1 km it runs south to the Coniston Hall drive at about 1.45 km and Coniston Hall at about 1.55 km.
WaypointsThe Bluebird Café, Lake Road, Church Beck, the shared path, the John Ruskin School, Hagg Wood, the Coniston Hall drive, Coniston Hall.
Decision pointAt about 0.4 km, leave Lake Road for the shared path on the left.
If you need to get offThe map shows the line beside Lake Road to about 0.45 km; on the shared path beyond, a public footpath at about 0.95 km leads about 200 m west-south-west to the A593, and at about 1.45 km the Coniston Hall drive leads about 430 m west-north-west to a lane at Haws Bank; never more than about 0.6 km to a road; not walked for this guide.
Coniston Hall → Turning point at Hoathwaite (1.3 km, 6 m)
Follow the drive south from Coniston Hall, a public footpath, tarmac and then compacted, through gates and past Coniston Hall Campsite at about 2.35 km, and on along the path to Hoathwaite Beck at about 2.65 km. Through a gate, the line takes a public footpath south-west past Hoathwaite campsite and makes a short loop, through a gate and a kissing gate by the Raymond Priestley Centre, turning back at about 2.9 km. Here, around 2.7 to 3.1 km, the line leaves the National Park's Miles without Stiles route 17, which carries on to Torver jetty, about half a kilometre further on.
WaypointsConiston Hall, the drive, Coniston Hall Campsite, Hoathwaite Beck, Hoathwaite campsite, the Raymond Priestley Centre, the kissing gate.
If you need to get offThe map shows no shorter way to a road from this stage than back past Coniston Hall to its drive, at about 1.45 km, which leads about 430 m west-north-west to a lane at Haws Bank: never more than about 1.9 km; not walked for this guide.
Turning point at Hoathwaite → Finish (2.9 km, 14 m)
Retrace the footpath north-east to the main path, then north past Coniston Hall Campsite and Coniston Hall, and back along the shared path to Lake Road at about 5.4 km, and down the path beside it to the start, at about 5.8 km.
WaypointsHoathwaite Beck, Coniston Hall Campsite, Coniston Hall, Hagg Wood, the shared path, Lake Road.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Planned route · not yet walked
More about this walk
A planned line, drawn from the map. OpenStreetMap shows gates and one kissing gate on it, and no stile or steps. The Lake District National Park grades the path south along the shore from the Coniston Boating Centre as Miles without Stiles route 17, ‘for many’. This line follows it out and back, leaving it only where it turns, around 2.7–3.1 km, about half a kilometre short of Torver jetty.
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, 6% at Coniston Boating Centre and 10% at Ruskin Avenue 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
There is a fallback here, but it is a weak one. Some of the 3 below tend to fill for the same reasons at the same time. Treat the list as one-and-a-bit options rather than 3.
- Coniston, Ruskin Avenue (paid) — joins the loop at about km 5.4 of 5.8: a 780 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Coniston (layby) — at the start
- Overflow Car Parking — at the start
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 John Ruskin School, a 660 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 0.5 km (Coniston, outside John Ruskin School, 230 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 Coniston Boating Centre car park (Lake District National Park Authority, pay) is mapped beside the line by the start. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 5 October 2026)
- Toilets Toilets are mapped about 40 m from the start. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 3 October 2026)
- Refreshments The Bluebird Café is mapped beside the start. Opening hours are not recorded here. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 3 October 2026)
- Limitation A kissing gate near 2.8 km, where the line leaves the park’s route to turn: not a whole-way pushchair route as drawn. (OpenStreetMap contributors, Cumbria extract of 24 July 2026, checked 4 October 2026)
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: Navigation (estimated from the map, not checked on the ground); exposure not assessed on the ground
Five independent axes, not one score. This route has not been walked yet, so none of them was set on the ground: one of the five is 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 | 5.8 km | 27 m | 1:12–1:36 |
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.
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Coniston — 0.8 km from this start
- Walks from Tom Gill waterfalls (Glen Mary) — 3.2 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.