Parking in Fort William is simpler than in a peninsula town, and it is still the thing that goes wrong before you have seen the High Street. Almost everyone arriving after ten aims at the same two long-stay parks. Knowing which park is for a town day, which is a three-hour shop, and which is a mountain road-end is the whole skill.
Charges, hours and which vehicles are allowed sit on the Highland Council parking directory. They move. This is which park is which.
For a day on the High Street, the West Highland Museum and a walk, go to An Aird No.2 or West End. Both are long stay. Do not feed a short-stay machine all afternoon.
For a twenty-minute errand, use Parade Gardens, Middle Street or Viewforth. They cap at three hours on the live directory.
Do not park in town for Ben Nevis. Glen Nevis, Achintee and the North Face are mountain parks. Do not park in town for Glenfinnan either: that is twenty-one kilometres west, with its own car park that fills before the train. The Commando Memorial has its own park at Spean Bridge.
An Aird No.2 is the park most visitors should head for if they are driving into town. It sits on Ardlinnhe Road, postcode PH33 6FF, next to the shinty ground and a short walk from the station, the buses and the High Street.
On the live Highland Council directory it holds 153 spaces. RingGo zone 23476. Charging is Monday to Sunday, 24 hours. Cars, motorhomes and light goods vehicles are listed. There is no maximum stay on that listing.
The live bands when we checked were up to 4 hours £3 / 10 hours £4 / 24 hours £7, with the same again for each extra day. Variation Five paperwork published in 2026 shows different bands for the same park. Treat any figure here as a snapshot. Read the machine. Pay there or on RingGo. Do not scan QR stickers on the posts — Highland Council has warned about fake RingGo codes.
An Aird No.1, next door, is the lorry and coach park. It is not your default. It has a free hour aimed at HGV and coach drivers; taking that ticket in a car is how people collect a penalty.
West End is the other long-stay, and the bigger one: about 270 spaces on Achintore Road, PH33 6RQ, at the south-west end of town by the loch. RingGo 23474. Charging is 24 hours. The live directory gives it a 24-hour maximum stay.
Use it if you are coming in on the A82 from Glen Coe and do not want to thread the one-way by the station. The walk into the High Street is longer than from An Aird, and it is still a town walk, not a glen walk.
Motorhomes are listed as permitted, with a night-time ban on the live page — no motorhomes between 9pm and 8am. Day parking in a marked bay is the use. Sleeping here is not. Read the signs; overnight rules in Lochaber have been tightening.
These three are the parks in the middle of town, priced to turn over.
Parade Gardens is tiny — 25 spaces on the live list — on Middle Street, RingGo 23471. Middle Street itself is the useful one of the three, 106 spaces, RingGo 23472. Viewforth, on Bank Street, PH33 6AY, holds 130, RingGo 23473.
All three, on the live directory, charge Monday to Sunday, 8am to 6pm, with a 30-minute free ticket and a three-hour maximum at £3 for the stay. Variation Five documents have shown a four-hour cap at Viewforth. The machine in front of you is the rule.
Use them to collect someone, or to do the museum and a coffee. Do not use them for Old Inverlochy Castle and a glen and lunch. You will be back feeding the machine while everyone else is on the towpath.
Transport Centre, on Nevis Terrace, PH33 6BT, RingGo 23477, is the long-stay by the station and the hospital. 74 spaces on the live list. Charging is 24 hours, maximum stay 24 hours. The live bands were £3 / £4 / £5 for 4, 10 and 24 hours. No motorhomes on the Variation Five table. Use it if you are putting the car down and taking the West Highland Line.
Morrisons, on An Aird Road, is a supermarket. It is a working shop with customer conditions and a time limit. Using it while you disappear up Glen Nevis is how those conditions tighten. It is not a council long-stay, and it is not a Jacobite park.
Fort William station has limited parking for rail users. If you are meeting a train, use it. If you are spending the day in town, use An Aird or West End. If you are riding the Jacobite from here, park in a council long-stay and walk over.
This is the Fort William-specific mistake.
Glen Nevis, Achintee and the North Face car parks exist for Ben Nevis and the glen walks, not for a High Street afternoon. The visitor-centre park is the usual start for the Mountain Track. Achintee is the other start, by the Ben Nevis Inn. The North Face park is the forest road-end for the cliffs and the CIC hut, not a shortcut into town.
In May 2026 Highland Council’s Lochaber Area Committee approved mandatory charging at several visitor road-ends, including Glen Nevis Road End, Achintee Road End and the Nevis Centre, with an overnight ban between 10pm and 8am at the affected sites. The Nevis Centre listing also keeps motorhomes out. Check the council notice and the board when you arrive. Do not treat an old blog that called Glen Nevis free as current.
Upper Glen Nevis, for Steall, fills early in summer on any tariff. It is a dead-end single-track, not a town overflow. Our Ben Nevis guide assumes you have parked in the glen. The walks guide is the rest of that road.
The Commando Memorial is not in Fort William. It is on the A82 at Spean Bridge, about fifteen minutes north, and it has its own car park. Drive there, use that park, look at the bronzes and the Nevis range, and come back. Do not leave the car in An Aird and taxi out. Details in the memorial piece.
Glenfinnan is the other trap. The National Trust for Scotland car park at the monument fills long before the steam train is due. A space in Fort William does not help you on that hillside. If you are going to the monument and the viaduct, park at Glenfinnan (early), take the bus, or take the ordinary train to Glenfinnan station and walk. If you are boarding the Jacobite at Fort William station, park in town and forget the car. Our Jacobite and Glenfinnan guide is blunt about the viewpoint car park.
Old Inverlochy Castle has a small parking area off the A82, a couple of kilometres north of town. It is a twenty-minute look at a fenced ruin, not a reason to occupy a West End bay all morning. See Old Inverlochy Castle.
An Aird No.2 and West End are the council parks built to take a large vehicle in a marked bay. Short-stay parks in the middle of town are not. If you have a van, use the long-stay and stay inside the lines.
Overnight sleeping in An Aird is not what the town parks are for. An Aird No.2’s live listing has no maximum stay and 24-hour charging; Variation Five documents and visitor reports describe night-time motorhome limits. The signs on the day win. Use a campsite — Glen Nevis has one, and there are others toward Corpach and Onich — and come in on foot or by bus.
EV charging in town is thin. There are points at An Aird / Camanachd Crescent. If you are arriving low, top up on the A82 rather than counting on a free rapid bay on a Saturday. Blue Badge bays sit in the main parks; the usual concessions apply.
A town and museum day. An Aird No.2 if you are coming from the north or the station; West End if you are coming from Glen Coe. Walk. You will not need the car again.
A castle-and-memorial day. Small park at Old Inverlochy, then the memorial’s own park at Spean Bridge. Do not shuttle back to town between them.
A Ben Nevis day. Glen Nevis or Achintee, early. Not An Aird. Not Morrisons.
A Glenfinnan day. Train from Fort William, or park at Glenfinnan before everyone else. Not a Fort William long-stay.
A wet day. Everyone comes into town. An Aird and West End still have the numbers; Parade Gardens will already be full of people who had the same idea. The rain guide is the rest of that plan.
August on a dry Saturday is a hunt. A Tuesday in February is not. The when to visit page is the calendar; this page is only the map.