A bright start to the day as the morning sun hits Blencathra.

First of the winter's snows.

Helm Crag in the early light as I head towards Coniston.

One very happy lady with her Wainwright Fell.

Coniston Village.

 Autumn meets winter as we head up towards the Coppermines Valley.

 Waterfalls in Church Beck, not as much water as I expected.

Into the Coppermines Valley.

Grafitti artist from times past.

Coniston Old Man from across the valley.  

Kennel Crag from the old quarry workings.

This area has many signs of its industrial past.

Some of the mine shafts are dangerous and have been fenced off. This shaft was "steaming".

Red Dell Beck. We were now countouring round the fellside on the old mill race.

An old sluice gate on the race.

Part of the challenge today was to find one level entrance in particular out of many. Unfortunately this wasn't it but it was a great expample with the sunlight relecting on the water and lighting the interior, the photo doesnt do it justice.

The upper valley of Levers Water Beck from Paddy's End Copper Works.

Continuing on the mill race we headed up into Boulder Valley. This is the Pudding Stone with the waterfalls from Low Water in the background. I was now on the lookout for one more reference here in the valley, a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.

At the top of Boulder Valley there is a fine view over Levers Water backed by the slopes of Swirl How.

Time for a posing shot! We stopped for something to eat in the sun, still missing ther required reference. A slow descent of the valley enabled us to check out any likely boulders, it was only when we were about 70m from the valley bottom did I click that the boulder that we were looking for was in fact the Pudding stone itself but just viewed from an obscure angle.

We had been within 20m of this point 2 hours earlier, very frustrating but good to have got the target in the end.

The "sticky-up" stone (Lesley's name for it, not mine!).

Now we followed the track south west before heading up the tourist route.

Ascending the tourist route past the old quarry workings.

Coppermines valley and the distant far Eastern Fells, including Ill Bell.

Wetherlam from the ruined buildings.

Another reference ticked off at Low Water before we re-traced out route back down to Church Beck. On our descent I was scanning the valley in the hope of spotting the level entrance that I needed to photograph.

Watefalls in Church Beck. Instead of just heading back to the village we headed back towards the miners cottages as I had spied a possible mine level as we had dropped back into the valley.

And there it was- unforunately not- yet again, nice mine entrance but not the right one. That reference remains elusive and will have to be obtained on another day.

The light was fading as we headed back to Coniston and a welcome cup of tea. Even though it wasn't a high fell day it was still most productive and very interesting to explore this valley with all its history.