The Old Man of Coniston is a fell in the Furness Fells in the Cumbria, English Lake District and is the highest point (county top) of the historic county of Lancashire. It is at least high, and lies to the west of the village of Coniston and the lake, Coniston Water. The fell is sometimes known by the alternative name of Coniston Old Man, or simply The Old Man. The mountain is popular with tourists and fell-walkers with a number of well-marked paths to the summit. The mountain has also seen extensive copper and slate mining activity for eight hundred years, and the remains of abandoned mines and spoil tips are a significant feature of the north-east slopes. Height A detailed survey on 24 May 2018 measured the height of the highest visible natural ground to be 802.42 metres (2632'7¼"). The height of the ground on the summit plinth (man-made ground) is 803.53 metres (2636'3"). The same survey also measured the height of nearby Swirl How, and measured it to be also 802.42 metres (2632'7¼"). The measurements were reported with a measurement uncertainty of plus or minus 0.05 metres (2"). The surveyors state: "If one considers the area covered by the plinth on Coniston Old Man and the observation that the highest rock is probably covered by it then we believe the evidence strongly suggests there is higher ground beneath it and that, therefore, Coniston Old Man should retain its current status" [as being the highest of the Furness Fells and the county top of historic Lancashire]. As of 2020, Ordnance Survey maps show the Old Man of Coniston with a height of 803 metres (2635'), and Swirl How at 802 metres (2631'), which makes the Old Man the highest point in the Furness Fells, and the twelfth most prominent mountain in England. Topography The Coniston (or Furness) Fells form the watershed between Coniston Water in the east and the Duddon valley to the west. The range begins in the north at Wrynose Pass and runs south for around before petering out at Broughton in Furness on the Duddon Estuary. Alfred Wainwright in his influential Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells took only the northern half of the range as Lakeland proper, consigning the lower hills southward to a supplementary work The Outlying Fells of Lakeland. Later guidebook writers have chosen to include the whole range in their main volumes.