The history of the area goes back thousands of years . The ruins of an old Roman fort can be found by the Lake shore . The Vikings brought their hardy Herdwick sheep and gave names to many places and natural features in the Lake District including Ambleside. During the middle ages the area came under the control of Furness Abbey. This led to the growth of agriculture with the fells being divided up with dry stone walls which are so familiar to us today.

As the industrial revolution gathered pace the town , utilising the abundant water power and the large areas of local woodland , was ideally placed to provide wooden bobbins for the textile mills of northern England . The remains of the waterwheels that powered the workshops can be seen along the banks of Stock Ghyll .

The combination of Wordsworth's eulogising the beauty of Lakeland , the growing urban populations with desires to escape the "dark satanic mills" and the arrival of the railway ,led to the foundation of the tourist industry . Most of modern Ambleside dates from the Victorian period as the town expanded to provide for the growing needs of the visitors who came to look and take home memories of the fells and the Lakes .