Coniston Fells Grand Loop

The route

Leave Coniston on the steep lane past the Sun Hotel and join the Walna Scar Road. It's a long, steady rise on a rough stony track, and by the time you top out at the Walna Scar pass after about 5km you've already banked 550m. Turn north here and the running changes character completely.

The ridge

Brown Pike and Buck Pike come quickly, then Dow Crag at 778m. The summit is a rocky point perched right above one of the biggest crags in the Lakes, so enjoy it and then move on. Drop to Goat's Hause above Goat's Water and climb to the Old Man of Coniston, 803m and the busiest summit you'll pass all day. From here the ridge is broad, grassy and fast: Brim Fell, over Great How Crags, then up to Swirl How at the centre of the Coniston Fells. Swing west and north over Great Carrs, where there's a memorial to the crew of a wartime Halifax bomber that came down on the ridge in 1944.

The high ground runs from roughly 6km to 13km and sits close to 750-800m for most of it. In clear weather it's some of the best ridge running in the southern Lakes. In cloud it's a different job, and the Swirl How to Great Carrs section is where people lose the line.

Little Langdale and home

Little Carrs leads onto Wet Side Edge, a long descent that loses over 500m into Little Langdale. Pass Little Langdale Tarn, cross Slater Bridge, and run by the old quarry workings at Cathedral Cave before heading south through the woods and fields past Yew Tree Tarn. There's one last pull up to Tarn Hows at about 23km, which feels harder than it should with 20km in your legs, then it's downhill and flat along the Monk Coniston side of the lake back into the village.

At 27km with around 1,300m of climb this is a big day out and grades Very Hard on our scale. Most of the ascent is front-loaded, so pace the Walna Scar Road sensibly and save something for the last 10km of rolling trail.