Dow Crag

Dow Crag is a fell in the English Lake District near Coniston in Cumbria. Its eastern face is one of the region’s most important rock-climbing venues. The name once applied only to that face, which overlooks Goat’s Water, a small tarn set in a deep hollow. Before hill walking began in the 19th century the fell itself had no need of a name. Locally the word ‘Dow’ is still pronounced like ‘Doe’. The fell stands at the southern tip of the Coniston Fells, a ridge that separates Coniston Water from the Duddon Valley. Alfred Wainwright included it in his influential Pictorial Guide, counting it among the 214 Lakeland fells he listed. The ridge linking Dow Crag to Brim Fell crosses Goat’s Hawse above the tarn, where the ground falls away steeply on the crag side. Southwards the ridge drops over subsidiary tops such as Buck Pike and Brown Pike to the Walna Scar Road, an old packhorse route once used for trade and slate quarrying. The summit is a narrow rocky point with fine views west to the coast, though Lakeland’s central fells block much of the view east. Walkers reach the top by paths from the Walna Scar Road or from The Old Man of Coniston and Brim Fell. The eastern crag offers over a hundred climbing routes of varying difficulty, including classic lines like Giant’s Crawl and Hopkinson’s Crack. Goat’s Water lies below the crag, its outlet tumbling through a boulder field past an old quarry and a man-made waterfall before joining Torver Beck.