The Old Man of Coniston
Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 1:38 pm
After our trip to the Lakes in June, we were itching to get back. The initial plan was to visit the Old Man of Coniston on arrival, day 2 Haystacks and day 3 Catbells... due to the heat this didn't quite go to plan. Instead when we arrived we tried to visit the roman fort near the hardknott pass (couldn't find it, I think we were too low down as didn't fancy driving up that road!) and visited Wastwater and Latrigg.
Day 2 we decided to try and get to the Old Man. I am not too sure about the difficulty of the hills in the Lakes or lengths taken as I haven't been able to find the same detailed walk reports as we have on here for the Scottish hills which are usually spot on. We set off early to try and get a head start before the heat picked up, as it happened the sun never came out until the evening which actually helped!
We set off along the main path to the right which was pretty straight forward
That path starts to gradually rise and it looked like we might be getting some blue skies
A couple that we kept bumping into on the route up called us over to this spot as it was nice and cool, they weren't kidding. It was amazing the cool draft, I actually had goosebumps at one stage. Sister and Penny keeping cool
By now any hope of blue skies and sunshine had gone but I wasn't to complain as it would have been too much for the dog as we were already looking at the last stretch, I tend to get a little paranoid about her now she is 10. We aimed for the top agreeing that shold she look tired we would turn back, well I couldn't keep up with her leaping up on the bigger boudlers charging on to the top Before the final stretch we enjoyed a good rest at the lovely tarn, it was here that Penny shocked me by going in to just below her chest.. wish I had caught that on camera!
Penny the mountain goat
Quite atmospheric views from the top
Looking back to the tarn
Penny with one of the only views we got!
Even though we didn't get any proper views from the top, it was one of those walks that had a 'something' about it.
Day 2 we decided to try and get to the Old Man. I am not too sure about the difficulty of the hills in the Lakes or lengths taken as I haven't been able to find the same detailed walk reports as we have on here for the Scottish hills which are usually spot on. We set off early to try and get a head start before the heat picked up, as it happened the sun never came out until the evening which actually helped!
We set off along the main path to the right which was pretty straight forward
That path starts to gradually rise and it looked like we might be getting some blue skies
A couple that we kept bumping into on the route up called us over to this spot as it was nice and cool, they weren't kidding. It was amazing the cool draft, I actually had goosebumps at one stage. Sister and Penny keeping cool
By now any hope of blue skies and sunshine had gone but I wasn't to complain as it would have been too much for the dog as we were already looking at the last stretch, I tend to get a little paranoid about her now she is 10. We aimed for the top agreeing that shold she look tired we would turn back, well I couldn't keep up with her leaping up on the bigger boudlers charging on to the top Before the final stretch we enjoyed a good rest at the lovely tarn, it was here that Penny shocked me by going in to just below her chest.. wish I had caught that on camera!
Penny the mountain goat
Quite atmospheric views from the top
Looking back to the tarn
Penny with one of the only views we got!
Even though we didn't get any proper views from the top, it was one of those walks that had a 'something' about it.