The Armitt Museum & Library

Did you know, that set within the picturesque village of Ambleside, there is something other than just cute cafes and local shops? There is a place where you can discover and explore the history and heritage of the heart of the Lake District. That place is The Armitt!

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