Bowness-on-Windermere (pronounced Bow.ness-on-Wind.eh.mere) is built on hilly terrain on the shores of Windermere in South Lakeland, Cumbria, England; while it has now grown together with the town of Windermere (which, confusingly, does not actually touch the lake), the two still have distinguishable town centres.

Windermere railway station offers train and bus connections to the surrounding areas, Manchester, Manchester Airport, and the West Coast Main Line, and is about a fifteen-minute walk from the lakefront. Both Stagecoach and the local council provide frequent connecting buses from Bowness Pier; Stagecoach's open-top double-decker buses travel through the centre of town and continue to Ambleside and Grasmere, while the council's wheelchair-accessible minibuses run around the edge of town. The Windermere Ferry, a car carrying cable ferry, connects Bowness with Far Sawrey on the opposite side of the lake.

The town's ancient parish church of St Martin [1] was built in 1483, but of an older foundation. The former rectory is said to have been built in 1415.

Readers of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons and the following books will recognise Bowness as the lakeside town of 'Rio'. The collection at the Windermere Steamboats & Museum [2] on Rayrigg Road includes a Ransome exhibition with several boats relevant to his work.

Bowness-on-Windermere became a civil parish in 1894 at the same time an urban district council was formed for the town. The UDC merged with Windermere UDC in 1905 and the two civil parishes merged in 1974 under the name of Windermere. The civil parish is governed by a town council.

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