Lakes Tourers Vol. 2 - Coniston Water

This paddle took place on Sunday, the second day of the Club’s weekend in the Lakes, following the previous day’s paddle on Derwent Water. The route covered the whole length of Coniston, starting from its northern end, and finishing back at the same point, with a total distance of about 18 kilometres. 

Six of us made this paddle: Simon Cosson, our weekend organiser for touring paddlers, Claire Teagle, Nigel Harris, Clive Pearson, Sam Perrett and I, each in our touring kayak. Sadly, neither the Barthorpes nor Nick Davis, who paddled with us the previous day, could make this paddle. 

Peel Island: the landing spot. Standing-room only!

I am writing this report five weeks after the event and without any detailed contemporaneous notes, only relying on my memory, so it might be a little vague and even inaccurate in places. I just hope that the letters to the Editor will not be too harsh. 

On the day, we met at Monk Coniston car park, at the northern end of Coniston, for a planned start of the paddle at 10 am. From the Met Office forecast, the day was expected to be overcast but with low probability of rain during our paddle, and with moderately low winds. This turned out to be fairly accurate, with only a very brief period of bright sun, and the rain making an appearance only when we were all back reloading our vehicles in the car park. 

Once on the water, we all started our journey along the length of the lake, making steady progress and enjoying the glorious the views of our surroundings. Simon shared his knowledge of the area, pointing out Brantwood House on the eastern shore, the former home of John Ruskin, and naming some of the summits we could see. 

Peel Island: the path up to the clearing. 

As planned, we reached Peel Island for our lunch break. This is a small rocky island, around 100x50 metres in size, located about three quarters down the length of Coniston, close to its eastern shore. It is densely forested, with a small clearing at its centre. And, as Simon had also reminded us of beforehand, Peel Island is the fictional Wild Cat Island of the children’s adventure story Swallows and Amazons. 

Landing on the island is via a narrow but uncomplicated inlet, with an even narrower stony beach. Out of our boats, we climbed up to the centre of the island to find the clearing where we had our lunch. In the shadows of the moss-covered trees, the atmosphere was both enchanting and mysterious, and one could easily imagine their own childhood adventures happening there. 

Back in our kayaks, all we had to do was to back paddle out of the inlet to reach open water and resume our route southward. We stopped about 200 metres short of the end of the lake when we saw a couple of boats sailing across the bottom bay, and we turned around for our return section of the paddle. 

Simon signalling it is safe to land. Or throwing spears at invaders! 

We were soon level with Peel Island, glanced at it one last time, and carried on steadily, enjoying the scenery and our luck at being there, until we reached our starting point. According to Claire’s Strava, we had covered something like 10.6 miles, but she really, really wanted to do 11 miles -the mystique of prime numbers and all that!-. So, while the rest of us got out of our boats and started the short portage to the car park, she stayed on the water to do a few short straight lengths, linked by beautiful turns, until her Strava told her it was 11 miles and time to go home. 

It started raining before we had finished reloading and changing, but by this stage nobody seemed to care about this trivial detail; we had all had a great day. 

My thanks to all my fellow paddlers on the day, with a special mention of Simon for organising and planning it to perfection.