Cumbrian Mines with Local Experts - 4 day hiking break
Four days to discover the heart of Cumbrian mining - the Lakeland history beneath our feet. Covering Langdale, Greenside, Coniston & Honister
Step into the heart of Lakeland mining with expert guides by day and Tom McNally’s unforgettable underground world by night
Three historic mines, three brilliant experts, and one inspiring underground evening
Day 1: Elterwater, Great Langdale - Meet & Greet, Afternoon tea, Tom McNally talk, dinner
Day 2: Glenridding, Ullswater - Warren Allison, Greenside mines
Day 3: Coniston - Phil Jonhstone, Coniston copper mines
Day 4: Borrowdale - Special tour underground of Honister slate mines
**Day 5 (optional extra mountain day +£45) ** Langdale Pikes Geology Tour by Liz jolley
Date: Monday 20th April-Thursday 24th April
Start / Location: Great Langdale
£290
Included in the price:
- 3.5 x Guided low level hiking with qualified local guides and a Lakeland mines expert
- 1 x Evening Talk with Tom Mcnally on Monday at The Langdale Hotel
- 1 x Evening dinner at The Langdale Hotel on Monday
NOT included in the price:
- Accommodation (but see recommendations below)
- Packed lunches (although we can provide lovely healthy packed lunches for £15 each - on request)
The Langdale Hotel has offered 15% discount for our break. Use promotional code 'HIKINGHIGHS' when booking
The Quiet Site, Ullswater have offered Luxury Glamping Cabins for the 3 nights for £330 (a reduction of £60).
Book your place now
...or contact us to discuss
Event program & details
Monday 20th April - afternoon: The Langdale Connection, Elterwater
Elterwater was the site of gunpowder production!
After a meet and greet we will take a short wander to hear the gunpowder story, followed by afternoon tea.
Monday 20th April - Evening: Photographic Underground Journey
told by Tom McNally. Tom is an award winning documentary, adventure sports and lifestyle photographer.
A 2 course dinner at The Langdale Hotel Is included following Tom’s talk
Tuesday 21st April - Glenridding, Ullswater
Tales of Greenside Mines will be told as we walk and talk with Warren Allison, who’s parents both worked at the mines (Read about Warren Allison’s connections to Greenside below)
Route details: Approx 10km & 550m ascent
At Greenside they mined for lead between 1825 and 1961. They became the wealthiest mines in the UK as they discovered a vein of silver. This mine was the first in the UK to have hydro electric power underground, created by the power of the water off Helvellyn slopes.
Throughout its life the mine employed hundreds of people from all over the country. Some walked many miles from far away villages with a week's supply of food, travelling back at the weekend to see their families.
Wednesday 22nd April - Coniston
Coniston Coppermines, The story of Boulder Valley, beneath and beyond.
Phil Johnstone, owner and inspiration behind the Coppermines valley as we know it today, will talk us through the mining historical timeline of this splendid valley and its people.
Route details: Approx 8km & 600m ascent
The first miners here were the Germans in the 16th century, & mining thrived here until the 1950's
Phil Johnston, Owner of Coniston Coppermines tells his story with the mines below.
Thursday 23rd April - Honistor, Borrowdale
The Hidden Honistor tunnels: Underground, and levels unseen, by the general public, this special tour and journey deep under Fleetwith Pike will be lead by an expert crew member of Honister Slate Mines. Adorned with helmet and headtorches, you will be blown away by what we find and learn.
Route details:
Morning underground is an easy walking tour, Approx 3 km & 100m ascent
Afternoon hike onto Fleetwith Pike will be 6km with 400m of ascent approximately.
Nestled deep in the heart of the Lake District, the current owners of Honister are the proud guardians of the Westmorland Green Slate. This magnificent 450 million-year-old stone carries with it stories from aeons past, they been hewn from this very mountain for many a generation.
Optional extra £45 Friday 24th April - Langdale Pikes Geology Tour with Liz Jolley
A true fell walking day out onto these iconic mountains. This will push the boundaries for those who wish for 1 day out on the tops to complete their week of mining tales and history (we will tick 4 Wainwrights too)!
Mountain Day Walk Details - Distance: Approx. 7.1km with Ascent: 710m
Liz Jolley (geologist) will join us, to talk us through what lies beneath our feet, including visiting the Neolithic Axe Factory beneath Pike o’Stickle, and nearby outcrops of greenstone formed during volcanic activity millions of years ago, from which the axes were made.
A bit about some of our experts
Phil's connection to Coppermines Valley, Coniston
"My Great Great Grandfather on my mother's side came to Patterdale in the mid 1850's from Coniston where his family worked in the copper mines and slate quarries and his sons went to work at Greenside, so mining is in the blood.
I was born the same year as Greenside closed in 1962 and with my brother and sister, we stopped most weekends at my Grandmother's house in Glenridding. I still remember the day as an eight year old, Mum taking me to show me where her family had worked, which included her as she also worked at the mine as the wages clerk.
Picking up a Quartz crystal at the mine, I was hooked and from then on the mine has been my favourite place. As a ten perhaps twelve year old, Mum would drop me off at the mine and pick me up a few hours later, which started a 50 year interest in mining.
I am currently chairman of the Cumbria Amenity Trust Mining History Society which researches and explores mines all over the country but mainly in Cumbria. In 1992, we got permission to reopen the main entrance to Greenside and then spent six years digging through several roof falls underground which was proper mining.
Between 1999 and 2003, a friend and I put on exhibitions in Glenridding village hall showing the mine and what life was like in the parish when it was working. My Grandmother arranged for me to visit people most who I had never met and they lent their photographs which is now apparently one of the finest collections of a single parish in the country.
Grandmother moved into her house in Glenridding in 1918, which Mum still has and so the connection with the parish is now some 165 years. Jenkins Field which is the large field on the lake shore by the steamer pier gets its name from my Great Great Grandfather."
Warren's connection to Greenside Mines, Glenridding:
"My parents came from Manchester, moving to Cheshire before I was born in 1953.
Dad, born in 1901, was an early climber, In the Peak, and North Wales, and my parents met soon after the war on a walking holiday in North Wales. He was an engineer, who taught me the value of “ foresight”.
The early influences of mainly mountain walking holidays, led me to get a holiday job when I was 17, with a walking holiday company, in Coniston taking people on the fells.
I returned to Coniston a lot through my teens and 20’s, whilst pursuing a career in Estate Management, and then aged about, 24 with my own business, in Architectural Salvage.
On purchasing the land and very derelict buildings in Coppermines Valley in 1982, I set about a comprehensive programme of interpretation, restoration, conservation, economic sustainability for the site.
The business expanded, and once again we also manage other properties for a wide variety of clients, together with a small farm.
Most recently we have dedicated 65 acres of formerly rough fell grazing to a rewilding project, which you can see on the left hand side of Coppermines Valley as you ascend to the mines."