Coniston Water is one of the more famous watery expanses in the Lake District and both Tennyson and Ruskin (each of whom is coincidentally also commemorated in a Plymouth street name) had houses on the eastern shore. Only a dozen or so miles from the sea it is 143 feet above sea-level although at its deepest point is over forty feet below sea level. Coniston Water stretches for some five miles and lies in the northern part of Lancashire. The north western is overlooked by the celebrated, round-backed Old Man of Coniston which rises to 2,633 feet above sea level.
Coniston Water abounds with trout and perch and its name, and like that of other place names that are prefixed with “Conis”, its name implies royal ownership – this is the King’smanor or “ton”. The “Conis” element coming from the old Scandanavian “konungr” or “kunungr” – king.
