Qualla: Old Man of Coniston https://qualla.com/old-man-of-coniston en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:16 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/t/v/old-man-of-coniston-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Old Man of Coniston https://qualla.com/old-man-of-coniston Old Man of Coniston: Introduction https://qualla.com/old-man-of-coniston/ Photo credit Strider52, CC BY-SA 3.0. From the top of the Old Man of Coniston on a clear day, you can see Blackpool Tower. On a really clear day, the Isle of Man. The summit cairn - a combined slate platform and pile of rock - sits at 802.42 metres of natural ground, or 803.53 metres if you climb onto the man-made plinth, an 18-inch difference that mountain surveyors care about and almost nobody else does. The Old Man is the highest fell in the Furness Fells, and the highest point in the historic county of Lancashire. It is also the most worked-over mountain in the southern Lake District. For eight hundred years, men have been pulling copper and slate out of its sides, and the slopes still bear the proof.

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Image: Strider52 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/t/v/old-man-of-coniston-wp/gctv-old-man-of-coniston-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Old Man of Coniston: Volcano, Tilted Up https://qualla.com/old-man-of-coniston/ Photo credit David Martin, CC BY-SA 2.0. The fell is built from the wreckage of an ancient volcano. It sits inside the Ordovician Borrowdale Volcanic Group, laid down roughly 450 million years ago when this part of England was an island arc south of the equator. A band of dacitic lapilli-tuffs of the Lag Bank Formation ...

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Image: David Martin | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/t/v/old-man-of-coniston-wp/gctv-old-man-of-coniston-volcano-tilted-up.mp3 0:06 2 full Old Man of Coniston: The Long Story Underground https://qualla.com/old-man-of-coniston/ Photo credit Rob Noble, CC BY-SA 2.0. Quarrying on the Old Man may have begun as early as the 12th or 13th century, though physical evidence is patchy. By the 1500s, the slate trade was well established, the rock cut from open cuttings near the summit, then later from underground workings hollowed back into the hills...

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Image: Rob Noble | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/t/v/old-man-of-coniston-wp/gctv-old-man-of-coniston-the-long-story-underground.mp3 0:06 3 full Old Man of Coniston: The Walk Up https://qualla.com/old-man-of-coniston/ Photo credit clive dyke, CC BY-SA 2.0. Most walkers approach the Old Man from Coniston village, climbing first up a metalled road, then a track past the old quarries via Church Beck and the mines. The path winds past quiet tarns and through the spoil heaps before swinging up to the summit ridge. An alternative climbs ...

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Image: clive dyke | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/t/v/old-man-of-coniston-wp/gctv-old-man-of-coniston-the-walk-up.mp3 0:06 4 full Old Man of Coniston: Fictional and Sacred https://qualla.com/old-man-of-coniston/ Photo credit jirikruta, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cultural ownership of this fell runs deep. Arthur Ransome made it the Kanchenjunga of Swallowdale - the great peak that the Swallows and Amazons climb in the second book of his series. The slate quarries and copper mines became the inspiration for Pigeon Post, four books later. T...

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Image: jirikruta | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/t/v/old-man-of-coniston-wp/gctv-old-man-of-coniston-fictional-and-sacred.mp3 0:06 5 full