Dow Crag

Breakfast on the morning of the second day of my break in Coniston and the rain had gone. The weather forecast threatened it would return mid to late afternoon so straight after breakfast I packed my rucksack and made an early start.  I’d decided to walk over Dow (pronounced Doe) Crag, a mountain with towering crags beloved by “crag rats” (rock climbers) but which has a gentler side for the less adventurous. It’s on the opposite side of a col from The Old Man of Coniston with a large tarn, Goat Water, in the bottom of the valley.

I walked through Coniston village and set off up Walna Scar road, an old track that connects Coniston and Seathwaite and would have originally been used by pack horses transporting slate from the many quarries in the fells. Today the first section is a narrow metalled road leading up to a car park in an old quarry. Used by many walkers to save some climbing. I, however, was walking up and it was hard work as it was very steep before levelling off.

I passed through the car park and continued on along what was now a rough track. I was soon up on the lonely fells and on my way up only saw two other people – both fell runners – one running in each direction.

Climbing up towards the summit of the pass I crossed over the beck taking water from Goat Water tarn down to the valley via this attractive little stone bridge (listed as Torver Bridge on the OS map).

I had a good view over to Dow Crag by now, but could see low cloud starting to threaten.

I carried on, reaching the top of the pass turning right to start climbing up towards the ridge when, sure enough, the cloud rolled in.

The path took me up towards a ridge with several summits – Brown Pike, Buck Pike and, finally, Dow Crag itself. A good walk and although the east side of the ridge consists of steep, rocky crags that plummet down to the bottom of the valley, the west side is a much gentler slope. So the walking wasn’t too difficult but for the entire period of my traverse I was in low cloud and visibility was poor. However, the path was well defined so there was minimal chance of getting lost or falling over the edge of the crags.

On a fine day there would have been excellent views over towards the Old Man and the other fells, but I could hardly see a thing!

I descended down into Goat’s Hawse and out of the cloud. And, for short while, the cloud lifted from Dow Crag

and the Old Man.

Looking down to Goats Water

However, the tops of the other nearby  fells were still shrouded in mist

I was tempted to climb up the path to the summit of the Old Man, but I’d be up there the next day so took the path down into the valley and then along the east shore of Goat’s Water. Looking back I could see that the cloud had returned, covering the top of Dow Crag and the Old Man.

As I descended good views down to Coniston Water opened up

Reaching the Walna Scar Road and set off back down towards Coniston.

On reaching the car park, rather than retrace my route down the metalled road I cut across country descending through the fields towards Consiton Water.

Looking back across to the fells where the cloud was starting to lift.

I cut across to Bowhamstead, a small hamlet to the south of Coniston Village, then walked across the fields to the Jetty

where I stopped for a brew at the Bluebird Cafe.

Oh, and a slice of cake.

I rested for a while looking over the lake then set back to Sheperd’s Bridge. I hadn’t been back long when the “promised” rain arrived, a couple of hours later than forecast.  So  although it was a grey day and visibility was poor on the top, (so not so good for photos), it was a good walk.