Swirl How

The ridges from the Old Man, Wetherlam and Great Carrs all meet on Swirl How, which makes it the hub of the Coniston fells. Its plateau tilts down towards the Duddon on the west, and the east side falls away steeply.

In Coniston there is free roadside parking just past the Ruskin Museum, on the road to Coppermines Valley. The road becomes a private track, open to walkers, through the old mine workings. Past the slopes of Tongue Brow, join the track to Levers Water. From the dam a rough path runs above the tarn and climbs to Swirl Hawse, then up Prison Band, the stony ridge to the summit, about 3.3 miles and 2,610 feet in all. The rock towers on Prison Band need a moment's thought, especially in the wet, but you can walk round them. Levers Hawse, to the south, is the other direct way from Coniston, and Swirl Hawse can also be reached from Little Langdale. The right of way marked up the Duddon side of Levers Hawse does not exist as a path on the ground. Most walkers take in Swirl How on a round of the ridges.

The summit cairn is a good one, on a stony top close to the edge above Greenburn. The view runs from the Isle of Man and Morecambe Bay to the Pennines, with the crowd of fells to the north and Coniston Water below.

On the north ridge towards Great Carrs is the memorial to the crew of a Royal Canadian Air Force Halifax bomber that crashed here in 1944. The undercarriage, a wooden cross and a memorial cairn remain, and an engine is in the Ruskin Museum.