Coniston Old Man
Early History
A Bronze Age urn produced from local clay discovered below Coniston Old Man in April 1909.
The urn is on display in Coniston’s Ruskin Museum.
Ice from the last Ice Age finally retreated from the Lakeland fells in about 8500BC. Ice movement was responsible for much of the mountain scenery that we can see above Coniston today. As it receded the ice left behind the ‘rock-basin’ tarns such as Low Water and Blind Tarn. Much later, around 2000BC, Bronze Age communities had settled on the ‘high-commons’, below the slopes of the Old Man.
This was a prosperous era and communities started felling the extensive tree-cover. In the favourable warm climate of the time they created ‘sweet pasture’ for grazing on land which has more recently deteriorated to acid peat
Most of Coniston Old Man was covered with trees. A Bronze Age ‘fell-walker’ descending from the summit would, within about 100ft of the top, have entered an area of scrub oak and birch. By the time he got down to where the Bannishead Road (Walna Scar Road) is today he would have been surrounded by high stands of elm and oak and this woodland would have extended right down to the lake shore, becoming increasingly difficult to penetrate as he got nearer to the lake.
Stubthwaite Moss, below the north-east shoulder of Coniston Old Man, is an area that was likely, once, to have held a Bronze Age settlement.
The area of Spion Cop may have been the site of earliest slate workings in the area, established to provide Norman Britain with material for the expanding monastic houses and the stately dwellings of their noblemen.
Page 1 – Home page
Page 2 - A working and recreational mountain
Page 4 – Map of slate workings
Page 5 – Details of survey
Page 6 – Survey results
Page 7 – Oral history archive
