During a very grey and largely wet Christmas week staying in the Lake District we did have one beautiful day which just happened to be Christmas day. Instead of opening presents and pigging out on chocolates and roast dinner we got up early and did a wonderful walk up Coniston Old Man and around to Dow Crag. As well as being a lovely mountain walk I had some good winter light to get some nice shots.
We took the main path in ascent, which despite being a constructed stone path is very atmospheric in really nice mountain terrain. It has some extra interest from old mine workings about half way. This doesn’t sound attractive but in a very man-made place like the Lake District (in fact most of Britain) looks surprisingly at home.
We were denied the big panorama views that you get at the top of Coniston Old Man because of a lingering cloud that hung over the hill (and which the hill was probably making) but did get to see distant glimpses briefly of various ranges and had good views to the south and east of the low lands of south Cumbria and Lancashire.