The Cumbria Way: Day 1: Ulverston to Coniston

First of all, this is not a guide to the Cumbria Way. It's just my account of the walk with a few pictures along the way. I'm not a specialist long distance walker, this was just a holiday backpacking through Cumbria with a mix of camping and booked accommodation.

The start is in Ulverston. It's helpfully marked with a blue plaque and if you can't find it on the map, find the Lotus House Chinese restaurant in the town and there's a brown tourist sign pointing you in the right direction up the side street.

I set off up the path by the beck following the yellow and green Cumbria way discs and signposts and was lost about 10 minutes later! That's partly because I opted not to take a guide book but to just use the OS maps which show the way marked path, and also because I didn't see the tiny squeezer stile in the wall just before the minor road. Anyway the local dog walkers are apparently used to pointing it out and i set off North across farmland, up paths masquerading as steams and through some very wet farmyards.

 The path goes up fairly gently and crosses a few lanes and then starts to head up the Blawith Fells towards Beacon Tarn with the Coniston Fells starting to appear in the distance (see left).

The path goes round the left (West) side of the Tarn and the familiar profile of the Old Man appears to encourage you that Coniston is not so far away.

Once past Beacon Tarn it's fairly effortless downhill and downstream and eventually you come to the footbridge over Torver Beck. It looked pretty full to me but i learned in the next few days that it had been a lot higher and it was merely "enthusiastic" on that day.

Over the bridge it's only a short distance to the Coniston Lakeshore and a straightforward walk towards Coniston. 

I camped at the Great Hoathwaite Farm National Trust campsite which is between Torver and Coniston. But it's not advertised or signed from the lakeshore path. If you want to find it, keep walking until you have just passed the Birmingham University Raymond Priestley Outdoor Centre, then double back up the lane which takes you up to Great Hoathwaite. Don't spend time looking for reception... there isn't one at the moment but the NT rangers do turn up from time to time and I managed to pay after throwing myself in front of the Range Rover to get his attention. It's a nice sloping site. It's a mile inland to Torver (2 pubs). Alternatively you can keep going along the lakeshore to Coniston Hall campsite which you can't miss, or to Coniston itself if you have booked somewhere to stay.