Tourist Information on Coniston

The village of Coniston, close to Coniston Water, was a mining settlement from Tudor times and prospered with the extraction of copper from the Old Man of Coniston overlooking the village.

John Ruskin, the Victorian philosopher, bought Brantwood house to the east of Coniston Water in 1871 and declared that the view of the Old Man of Coniston was 'the best in England'. Ruskin lived here for 27 years and when he died the Ruskin Museum became the village's memorial to him.