Coniston Water in the county of Cumbria is the third-largest lake in the Lake District by volume, and the fifth-largest by area. It is five miles long by half a mile wide, has a maximum depth of 56 metres, and covers an area of approximately 1.89 square miles. The lake has an elevation of 45 metres above sea level.
You can see fresh water eel, Atlantic chard (if you're lucky and it's March / April), pike and other fresh water lake fish.
Car park view
View from car park towards Coniston Water
The water is available to dive at any time of year, but be careful as during the winter months the water temperature can get down to as little as 6C and at the start of spring the melt water from the surrounding hills can lower that by a further 2C - 4C.
Preferable road to beach entry point
When you get to the beach to the left of the car park (pebble beach) there's a large rock just in the water, depending on the water level depends if you can use this to lean on to put your fins on. Be careful as the bottom is made up of shingle and small pebbles that are quite slippy.
Take a bearing directly across the lake from the rock then descend you should get a shallow sloping bottom to a shelf running along the water at about 6 meters. There should be a man made pile of rocks under you as you descend. Continue descending and you'll reach about 8 meters where there are some other man made paraphernalia including an old milk urn. There is boat traffic on the lake so ensure you erect a surface marker buoy at the start of the diver generally tied off at the milk urn. Carry on the bearing descending to about 10 meters where there's a drop of to about 20 meters or so and then a shallow descent to whatever depth you want. Be careful though as there's lots of silt that can easily be disturbed. At about 28 - 30 metres there are a few gnomes. Turn left along the wall gradually shallowing up until the 6 meter shelf then double back along the shelf towards the man made pile of rocks and milk urn which signals the entry point.
This page wouldn't be possible without contributions from the following PADI members: David Keany (PADI pro). Disclaimer
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