All The Gear But No Idea: Dow Crag via the South Rake & The Coniston Fells

The Coniston Fells 09-12-2018

This map was created using GPS Visualizer's do-it-yourself geographic utilities.

Please wait while the map data loads...

Route: Walna Scar Road, The Cove, Goats Water, South Rake, Dow Crag, Goats Hause, The Old Man of Coniston, Brim Fell, Levers Hause, Fairfield, Grey Friar, Great Carrs, Swirl How, Prison Band, Swirl Hause, Levers Water, Paddy End Works, Crowberry Hause, Walna Scar

Date: 09/12/2018
From: Walna Scar

Parking: Walna Scar car park
Start Point: Walna Scar
Region: Southern Fells

Route length: 10.6 miles (17km)
Time taken: 06:15
Average speed: 2.1 mph
Ascent: 1058m
Descent: 1059m

Wainwrights on this walk:
Dow Crag (778m), The Old Man of Coniston (804m), Brim Fell (796m), Grey Friar (770m), Great Carrs (788m), Swirl How (802m)

Additional summits: None

Other points of interest: Moss Force

It was Alfred Wainwright who proposed the name 'South Rake' in his 1955 edition of the Pictorial Guide to the Southern Fells. The rake, a steeply slanted ribbon of rock and scree on Dow Crag, had been used for many years by climbers seeking a quick way back to the bottom of the buttresses but Wainwright introduced it to the masses as an interesting alternative to the main walker's paths.

Walna Scar

Crowberry Haws with the Coniston fells beyond

Arguably, the best place to start is at Walna Scar which is exactly what I did. It came as a slight surprise to find quite a few cars parked there already, despite it being before 9am. The Walna Scar car park provides an easy start to a day on the hills.

The Bursting Stone route to the Old Man of Coniston

Morning light over Coniston Water

The Old Man of Coniston

I followed the road as it gently climbs, the views of Coniston becoming increasingly better. I've walked the road on a few occasions but I've never ventured into The Cove or to Goat's Water. Partway along the road, a path branches off and climbs towards Dow Crag.

Departing the Walna Scar road

Following the path to The Cove

Until now, Dow Crag had been obscured but, skirting around the side of The Cove, the immense buttresses being to emerge. It's not until you reach the outlet of the tarn, however, that you get the full view of Dow Crag.

Buck Pike and Dow Crag over The Cove

Dow Crag

Easy Gully and Great Gully on Dow Crag

Add caption

Dow Crag and Goat's Water

The striking declivities of Great Gully and Easy Gully are what draw your attention first. They separate A, B and C buttresses - Dow Crag’s buttresses are labelled A – F in a south-north direction. The small gully to the left of A buttress is Easy Gully (easy by rock climbing standards). To the left of Easy Gully, hidden up until now, is the South Rake, a ribbon of scree that curves up from the base of A buttress.

To reach the South Rake requires a steep, loose scramble up the scree slope to reach the base of A buttress.

Goat's Water

At the foot of the scree

Easy Gully - identifiable by the pinnacle of rock at its entrance

Looking down the scree to Goat's Water

Great Gully

Traversing around to the South Rake

Easy Terrace

Great Gully

The South Rake

The South Rake offers a similar challenge to Lords Rake on Scafell though I think it's a superior scramble being longer and marginally steeper. It passes the imposing entrance to Easy Gully as it makes its way up through the rocks of Dow Crag.

Looking down the South Rake

The South Rake below Easy Gully

The Old Man of Coniston

Easy Gully

As the rake climbs higher it becomes a little steeper and splits, separated by a grassy spur. Either side is climbable and neither looks more challenging than the other. Eventually, I emerged onto the crest of Dow Crag's main ridge.

The South Rake

The right-hand gully

Looking down the left-hand gully

The final climb to the ridge

The view into Dunnerdale

A brief view of Coniston

Dow Crag's summit ridge

Clouds swept over the ridge while I made my way to the summit, obscuring the view while I was there. Fortunately, they did not hang around for long and cleared by the time I was descending to Goats Hause.

Dow Crag's summit

Dow Crag

A view to Coniston

Harter Fell

Brim Fell seen over Goat's Hause

Grey Friar and Swirl How over Calf Cove

Goat's Hause

Goat's Water and Dow Crag

Goat's Water

There's a steep 200m climb from Goat's Hause up The Old Man. After the climb, you're greeted by a splendid view of The Old Man as you reach the ridge where it's a short, almost level, walk to the summit.

The buttresses of Dow Crag

The South Rake

Approaching the Old Man

The Old Man is the highest fell of the Coniston group, topped by an odd slate platform/cairn combo - no doubt a result of its slate mining heritage.

Coppermines Valley and Coniston

The trig pillar on the Old Man

The large cairn on the summit

Coniston

Wetherlam

The Old Man has a fine view, down to Low Water and across the bulk of the Coniston fells. The face of Dow Crag is well seen, with the South Rake and gullies now easily identifiable. The light on the fells at this time of the day was magnificent but short-lived - high clouds were starting to roll in.

The Old Man of Coniston sits at the most southerly end of the north-south ridge that defines the main Coniston group. Brim Fell stands close by while Swirl How and Great Carrs guard the northern end. A walk along the ridge is superb, though marred somewhat by the profusion of unnecessary cairns along the way. Brim Fell may appear to be nothing more than a simple bump along the ridge. It's not until you reach Levers Hause that it becomes apparent that it is a separate fell.

Looking along the ridge from the Old Man of Coniston

Brim Fell

Cairns guide the way...

Brim Fell's summit cairn

Brim Fell is unusual in the fact that it has no footing on the valley floor on either side of the ridge. On the east, its boundary streams converge at 800ft and the flanks of Coniston Old Man and Wetherlam continue to the lake. Above the Duddon, Brim Fell is nipped off by Dow Crag and Grey Friar at an even greater altitude. The area of the fell is therefore small, but full of interest.

Once I had reached Levers Hause, I followed a faint path that traverses below the main ridge of Swirl How to reach the col at Fairfield.

Calf Cove below Grey Friar

Swirl How

Levers Water

Seathwaite and Seathwaite Tarn

Grey Friar

Brim Fell and Dow Crag

The traverse to Fairfield

Dow Crag

Grey Friar is a real outlier of the group. Despite being a large fell (it forms most of the eastern side of the Duddon Valley, it is the least visited of the group, thanks to its location off the beaten track. It has a very pleasant flat summit with a neat covering of grass, a real joy to stroll along. The summit rocks, capped by the traditional cairn, offer a wonderful view of the dark mass of the Scafells. It's well worth the visit. In the other direction, Brim Fell appears as a great mass ahead of The Old Man and Dow Crag, across the valley, takes on a wonderfully mountainous profile.

Dow Crag

Scafell and Scafell Pike

Grey Frair's summit

The Scafells

Panorama from Great Friar

Black Combe at the end of Dunnerdale

I returned to Fairfield and made the short climb to Great Carrs, passing the war memorial on the way. During a nighttime navigation exercise in 1944, the RCAF Halifax from RAF Topcliffe became lost in thick clouds while over the northwest of England. In an attempt to wait out the blanket of grey, they circled in the hope the cloud would clear, ultimately becoming hopelessly lost.

To try and get a visual fix for the navigator, the pilot dropped the bomber out of the cloud base, with no knowledge of what was below him. Unfortunately, for both him, the crew and the aircraft, they were greeted by the great rising fells of Swirl How and Great Carrs. With no time to react, the aircraft hit the mountainside killing all on board.

Harter Fell

Fairfield and Great Carrs

Remnants of the bomber on Great Carrs

Despite the crew perishing in the impact, the bomber remained largely intact and, to prevent other aircraft from spotting it and reporting it repeatedly, the wreckage was cut into a number of smaller, moveable pieces and discarded down Broad Slack, where parts of it are still visible today. Over the years, two of the four Rolls-Royce engines were recovered from the crash site by an RAF helicopter, one of which is now on display at the Ruskin Museum at nearby Brantwood. The undercarriage, together with a wooden cross and memorial cairn is on the top of the ridge, a sad reminder to us all of those men who never returned from the war.

Memorial to the crashed bomber

Great Carrs' summit looking to Swirl How

Swirl How would be the next destination - it sits just a short distance away. Despite not being the highest fell, it is the geographical centre of the group, radiating ridges from the summit to all four points of the compass. The summit is marked by a fine cairn on a stony top, built close to the Greenburn edge of the ridge.

Wetherlam

Swirl How

Swirl How's summit

The next leg of the walk requires heading down Prison Band, a steep, stony ridge that falls some 200m down into Swirl Hause. From here I would be treading some new territory by descending to Levers Water and back to the Coppermines Valley.

Looking down Prison Band to Wetherlam

Levers Water

Prison Band

A large cairn sits in Swirl Hause

Looking down to Levers Water

Great How Crags

The shores of Levers Water

Great How Crags and Swirl How

My intention was to cross the outlet to Levers Water and follow the Boulder Valley down towards Low Water Beck and the Pudding Stone. However, crossing the stream was easier said than done. I was unable to find a dry way across so, instead, followed the stony track past Kennel Crag to Tongue Brow before picking up a path with makes a high circuit of the valley, ultimately leading to the Pudding Stone.

Quarries in the Coppermines Valley

Levers Waterfall

Coniston Water

One of several adits along the route

Levers Waterfall

Peeking through the Coppermines Valley to Coniston

An old quarry road leads almost directly from the Pudding Stone to the car park at Walna Scar where I found the car, still where I left it (always a relief). This was a superb walk, the highlight being the excellent scramble up the South Rake on Dow Crag. I'm ashamed it's taken me this long to get round to doing it but I've finally scratched that itch. Time to look at some other long-term goals...