The Armitt Museum

Creative Tourist

Last Updated 15 March 2023

The Armitt Museum, Rydal Road, Ambleside, LA22 9BL – Visit Now

Full of interesting and unusual objects, The Armitt is a museum that shares the history and heritage of Ambleside and its people.

Founded as a subscription library in 1912 by Mary Louisa Armitt, it embodied the old 1828 Ambleside Book Society, of which William Wordsworth had been a member, and the Ambleside Ruskin Library, founded by Hardwicke Rawnsley in 1882 with the active support of John Ruskin. Since then, The Armitt has grown and evolved into a museum that has collected a variety of artefacts, including Beatrix Potter’s fungi watercolours, Roman remains from the Ambleside fort, and Kurt Schwitters paintings, to name just a few.

The Armitt regularly changes its exhibitions and displays, showcasing its varied collections of objects, artworks, and books, and telling stories about the people, places, and passions of the Lake District.

Only a short 20-minute walk from Waterhead Pier, The Armitt is ideally located at the tip of the University of Cumbria campus and opposite the main Rydal Road car park.