We have used R _ { C } I _ { C } CCD photometry from the Isaac Newton telescope and intermediate resolution spectroscopy from the Gemini North telescope to identify and characterise low-mass ( 0.15 < M / M _ { \odot } < 1.3 ) pre-main sequence stars in the young open cluster NGC 2169 .
Isochrone fitting to the high- and low-mass populations yields an intrinsic distance modulus of 10.13 ^ { +0.06 } _ { -0.09 } mag and a model-dependent age of 9 \pm 2 Myr .
Compared with the nearby , kinematically defined groups of a similar age , NGC 2169 has a large low-mass population which potentially offers a more precise statistical investigation of several aspects of star formation and early stellar evolution .
By modelling the distribution of low-mass stars in the I _ { C } versus R _ { C } - I _ { C } diagram we find that any age spread among cluster members has a Gaussian full width at half maximum \leq 2.5 Myr .
A young age and small age spread ( < 10 Myr ) are supported by the lack of significant lithium depletion in the vast majority of cluster members .
There is no clear evidence for accretion or warm circumstellar dust in the low-mass members of NGC 2169 , bolstering the idea that strong accretion has ceased and inner discs have dispersed in almost all low-mass stars by ages of 10 Myr .