Avoiding the Old Man

The Old Man of Coniston's too busy: he's always too busy at weekends and in summer. Swirl How's only a couple feet lower at 2,630ft, and if you've gone metric they're the same - 803m above sea level. We'll try Swirl How instead.

Coniston is the best place to start. The mountains show their finest rock faces to Coniston. Once you're through the green fields and woods surrounding the village the walk deposits you in a huge stadium of broken stone. In it, grassed-over spoil heaps, mill races and mysterious flooded mine shafts all lie in the shadow of quarry-terraced mountainsides.

Though copper mining here dates back to Roman times, large-scale mining began some 400 years ago. It reached its peak in the mid-19th century before going into decline in the 1870s. The hard rock of the Borrowdale volcanic group made the drilling difficult and slow and the sound of gunpowder explosions would have echoed round the valley. Some of the veins were over 1,000ft (305m) below ground and over 500ft (152m) below sea level. The miners could only access the veins by wooden ladders and staging platforms that were used for the tramming of the ore. The ore was known as chalcopyrite (sulphide of copper and iron), which has a yellow/gold colour, not unlike 'fool's gold'.

Today, the deep shafts are flooded and far too dangerous for serious exploration. Rock debris has fallen down on to the old platforms and it's difficult to tell whether you're standing on the floor of the pit or trusting your fate to rotten timber.

Beyond the mines you pass Levers Water, a natural tarn enlarged and dammed by the miners for a supply reservoir. The excitement begins at the pass of Swirl Hawse. From here climbing the Prison Band takes you into rocky terrain - steep, but not serious enough for the use of hands. Soon you're at the huge summit cairn looking across the grassy whaleback of Brim Fell to the Old Man. Chances are you'll see a hundred little silhouettes: walkers shuffling about against the backdrop of a Morecambe Bay skyline. We could go there now - it's easy.

But an afterthought is never worthwhile, so we'll continue with our route for purists and connoisseurs, taking the little path that rakes across the high sides of Brim Fell. It comes out at Goat's Hawse, a boulder pass with a wonderful view of the magnificent climbers' cliffs and buttresses of Dow Crag away to your right. And what more fitting way to end the walk than on Walna Scar Road, where the Romans transported their copper ore, over the mountains to the port of Ravenglass.

While you're there

Visit the Ruskin Museum in Coniston village, set up by his private secretary W G Collingwood, both as a memorial to Ruskin and as a guide to the area's heritage. There are exhibits about the geology of Coniston and its copper mines. The museum also has an extensive collection of Campbell family memorabilia, including photographs and press cuttings about Donald Campbell's fateful attempt at the water speed record on Coniston Water in 1967.

Where to eat and drink

The Sun Hotel is a 16th-century inn set just above the village - you'll pass it on the outward and return routes. It's a free house offering a choice of real ales and a good bar meal menu in the setting of an oak-beamed bar with a real fire or a beer garden if its sunny. The inn is pet-friendly.

What to look for

The Coniston area has two distinct rock groups. The older Borrowdale volcanic group was laid down around 460 million years ago. The area was then submerged beneath a sub-tropical sea and the sediments from it formed the impure Coniston limestone. In a collision of landmasses the rocks were intensely heated, and uplifted over 90 degrees. The volcanic rocks now formed the high peaks with the sedimentary layer underlying the lusciously wooded valleys.