Old Man of Coniston stretch from north of the summit toward the Coppermines. The Old Man of Coniston is the inspiration for the so-called "Kanchenjunga", the Lake District mountain Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons climb in the Swallows and Amazons novel "Swallowdale". The slate quarries and copper mines inspired "Pigeon Post", a later novel in the same series. Old Man of Coniston The Old Man of Coniston is a fell in the Furness Fells in the English Lake District. It is high, and lies to the west of the village of Coniston and the lake, Coniston Water. The fell is sometimes known by the
Swallows and Amazons series discussion and theorising about precise relationships. This contributes strongly to the series' air of authenticity. The first book, "Swallows and Amazons", and four sequels — "Swallowdale", "Winter Holiday," "Pigeon Post" and "The Picts and the Martyrs" — are set in and around an unnamed lake in the English Lake District. Most of the unfinished "Coots in the North" would also have been set on the lake had Ransome completed it before his death. The lake and the surrounding fells are based on an amalgam of Windermere and Coniston Water, places where Ransome spent much of his childhood and later life.