Day 8 - Saturday 15th September

Coniston to Great Langdale
13 miles, 8 1/2 hours (including route detour)


About the day

This was another stage of the walk that we had decided to split over two days. Rather than going to Ambleside, we would stop at Great Langdale leaving a short walk for the last day before travelling home.

The cloud lingered low over the fells as we left Coniston.







At Miners bridge the waterfalls of Church Beck were quite impressive.


We debated whether to take the high or low level route as we continued up the track towards Coppermines Valley. Although it was misty, the weather was dry and forecast to improve so we continued up to pass the Youth Hostel beside Levers Water Beck waterfall.








The path then climbed steeply upwards, giving us a view back down to Coniston Water.





At Levers Water the mist swirled around. The water was very calm and the air so still and quiet. It was very peaceful, and relaxing to watch the cloud dropping and clearing.





Beyond Levers Water the path gradually climbed up to Swirl Hawse. We had one last look back before ascending Prison Band up into the cloud.




It was a steep but enjoyable scramble up to the summit of Swirl How, despite not having any views. On top we were surrounded by mist and the temperature suddenly dropped in the wind.


Whilst taking a picture at the summit the first of many fell runners passed us by at speed and disappeared ahead into the mist.



As we made our way across the Top of Broad Slack we passed the memorial at the site of a crashed wartime Royal Canadian Air Force bomber.





Below Little Carrs we were passed by more and more runners. Dropping down below the mist they descended Wet Side Edge much quicker than us.





We crossed the Wrynose Pass road at the Three Shire Stone and headed on towards Red Tarn between the summits of Cold Pike and Pike o Blisco.


At Red Tarn the cloud had lifted considerably and so we opted to detour to the left up and over Crinkle Crags rather than descend straight down alongside Browney Gill into Great Langdale.






We weren't disappointed as there were extensive views back towards Swirl How where we had come from, and ahead over Pike o Blisco to Windermere, and down the full length of Great Langdale.





After Crinkle #1 the cloud and mist descended again. A hole opened up giving a framed view down into the valley.


The 'Bad Step' at Crinkle #2 proved too big for short legs and large rucksacks and so we detoured around to the left, with visability dropping all the time. We turned too soon to follow a series of small cairns, thinking we had rejoined the main path. Instead we found ourselves heading down Long Top to the North West. Several other walkers had made the same mistake, and so we returned en-masse to the correct path with the aid of GPS. One lone walker had become disoriented and was planning to return to Red Tarn, but decided to continue with the group as we offered to arrange to get him back to his car from Great Langdale.



We didn't see anything much until dropping down out of the cloud at the end of Crinkle Crags to Three Tarns. We then took the long route down The Band to Stool End Farm. On the way down the sun broke through the clouds, shining on to Pike o Blisco.




Rather than stopping off at the Old Dungeon Ghyll we took the direct route along the road to the New Dungeon Ghyll hotel to arrange a lift for Jim back over to his car on the Wrynose Pass.




38) New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, Great Langdale - 6:30pm

Clean friendly relaxed bar. A welcome drink after a tough day.




We then headed on to our B&B, Robinson Place Farm.




We went to Stickle Barn Tavern next for some food, and had to sit outside as it was so busy.



39) Stickle Barn Tavern, Great Langdale - 8:30pm

Busy bar, very crowded
(photo taken next morning).


Afterwards we went to the final pub of the day for a drink.




40) Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, Great Langdale - 9:45pm

Unusual old pub with wooden benches. Nice but very noisy.