Parking in Ambleside – easy!

Off-street Car Parks
Ambleside has five ‘Pay & Display’ town centre car parks.

    • Rydal Road – a large long-stay car park on the left as you leave the town centre northwards towards Keswick .
    • Lake Road – as you go south from the centre (entrance on right just past ‘Adventure Peaks’)
    • Low Fold going south on Lake Road on the left
    • Kelsick Road – a short-stay (cheaper) car park opposite the Public Library.
    • Rothay Road, Miller Field – on left as you enter the town centre from the south.

also

  • Ambleside School, Vicarage Road – after 5.00pm on school days – donation boxes

Public car park fees are higher than the national average.

On-street Parking (see Town Maps)
There are quite a lot of on-street parking spaces in the town centre. Parking control is operated by Cumbria County Council, not the Police. Council traffic wardens, unlike the Police, have nothing else to do so are more likely to catch you if you park illegally.
If you park on the street in the town centre area between 10am and 6pm, your time is limited usually to one hour and you have to display the time you arrived, usually by means of a disc. This makes it easier for the wardens to nick you and interestingly forces you to be an accomplice in your own downfall.

parking1This is a disc, although it is a square one, and you can get them free from local shops, Library and the Tourist Info Centre, sometimes. If you have a disc from elsewhere it will do. If you don’t display your time of arrival in the town centre area between 10am and 6pm you could be nicked even if you have only been there 10 minutes, which is the time allowed for you to obtain a disc. Parking fines are £25 if paid early. If you can’t get a disc, write and display your time of arrival on a piece paper.

Outside the town centre there are residential streets where parking is allowed but the on-street spaces there are badly needed by local residents most of whom have no off-street parking. This doesn’t stop many tourists from parking outside houses and going on an all-day walk or even leaving a car for several days. If you know anyone who does this, it would help local/tourist relations if you asked them not do it again.

Long term parking
There is no provision in public car parks for stays over 24 hours.