Canyoning at Church Beck with Lakeland Ascents

Written by: Rob R

Location: Coniston
Business: Lake District Activities with Lakeland Ascents
Duration: 2-3 hours

As part of Cumbria Tourism’s 50th anniversary, the team are trying out 50 different tourism experiences throughout the year – to help inspire your own days out across the Lake District, Cumbria. For this experience, Rob Rhys and Rob Davies took to the waters for thrilling session of canyoning.

Have you ever been Ghyll Scrambling and thought let’s turn it up a notch? If you said yes, then canyoning is certainly for you!

The morning started in Coniston at the Old Station Car Park where we met our instructor Si.

After a brief introduction to canyoning and a safety talk Si kitted out the group with wet suits, harnesses and helmets ready for our adventure.  Following a slight battle with a wet suit, we took a short 15-minute walk to our starting point in the Coppermine’s Valley. 

The Canoyning experience takes place in Church Beck, a one kilometre long naturally narrow canyon with plenty of thrills along the way. Starting off descending down the river, Si navigated the group down the river and its obstacles.

Our first major obstacle was a drop down one of the canyons heavy flowing waterfalls. Harnessed together and in pairs, Si slowly lowered us down the waterfall into a small lagoon. Of course, time for a quick snap before sending us into the abyss below.

As we ventured further down Church Beck, the descents and jumps got bigger and more extreme. For myself the best part of the experience was the big jumps into lagoons, although I must admit to being a little scared at the time.

Throughout the experience Si was great, very encouraging and made us feel safe. If you didn’t feel up to a certain jump, there was always a second or even third less daunting option. 

The big finale in Church Beck is the ‘chockstone slide’, a thrilling launch down a natural slab of stone straight into a 10ft drop into a deep pool of water. What a way to end the experience!

Exiting Church Beck to the right, we took a short stroll back to our meeting point where we got changed into some fresh clothes, ready to go about the rest of our day.

A huge thank you to Si at Lakeland Ascents for allowing us to experience canyoning for the first time.

Lake District Activities with Lakeland Ascents provide a number of activities perfect for any thrill seeker in various locations across Cumbria. 

For more information visit:

Lake District Activities with Lakeland Ascents' Website

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