Coniston and Langdale are very popular among visitors to the Lake District. While most walkers aspire to climb the high fells, the Short Walks series of guidebooks, naturally, offers short and fairly easy walks in the valleys and on the lower slopes. The focus is more on walking at a gentle pace and taking the time to appreciate the beauty, history, heritage and wildlife of the area. The 15 short walks are based around the village of Coniston, taking in the neighbouring villages of Torver and Hawkshead, with the rest based around Great Langdale and Little Langdale.

There is a single 'challenging' walk offering an ascent of the Old Man of Coniston. This is a popular choice among visitors, including those who aren't regular walkers, but the climb is best reserved for a clear, calm day. Some of the other walks venture onto the fells, but not to the summits, and most of the walks stay fairly low on field paths, through woodlands, along lake shores, often passing places offering food and drink. All but one of the walks are easily accessible using public transport.

The route research for this guidebook was done in the depths of winter, making the most of clear, cold days, using local buses to get to and from the walks. While winter pictures are fine, the ones in the book are balanced by a series of summertime pictures taken over many years.

Walkers are encouraged to take their time on these walks, admiring the views, visiting museums at Coniston and Hawkshead, appreciating all the hard labour that was expended quarrying slate from the fellsides and extracting mineral riches from deep and dangerous mines.

GPX tracks are available for all the routes in this guidebook. They can be downloaded from the Cicerone website.