Dow Crag

Above Goat's Water, Dow Crag is a wall of rhyolite buttresses about 100 metres high, with more than a hundred climbing routes on it. Walkers come at the top from behind, where the ground is far kinder, and many pair it with the Old Man for a horseshoe round the tarn.

The simplest way up uses the Walna Scar Road. Park at the fell gate car park above Coniston, walk the old road to the top of the pass, then turn north along the ridge over Brown Pike and Buck Pike. From Torver, a walled bridleway climbs past Banishead Quarry to join the same road, a route of about 3.8 miles and 2,400 feet. To see the crag close up, leave the road at The Cove, go up to Goat's Water and climb to Goat's Hawse at the head of the tarn. South Rake, a gully through the crag, is the easiest way up the face and a fairly easy scramble.

Between Goat's Hawse and the top, the ridge is steep and rough on the Dow Crag side. There is no summit cairn, only a rock point right on the edge above the gullies, so take care in wind.

The view south and west over the coast and estuaries is the best of it. The Old Man and its neighbours hide most of the Lakes, but the Scafells, Skiddaw and the Helvellyn range show through the gaps. Goat's Water keeps its natural shape and holds trout and char, and Blind Tarn lies in a hollow below Brown Pike.