Carnforth is a market town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, situated at the north-east end of Morecambe Bay.

Due to the closeness of the coast and the hills, Carnforth is a popular base for walkers and cyclists exploring the area.

The River Keer, the West Coast Main Line (WCML), the A6 and the Lancaster Canal pass through the town.

The M6 motorway passes just to the east, linked to Carnforth by the A6070 (formerly the A601(M)) which was originally part of the Lancaster bypass before the M6 was extended north.

A number of workers moved to the ironworks and lived in the nearby company village of Dudley (now called Millhead).

In 1864, the Carnforth Haematite Company took over the works and production was vastly increased due to iron ore that was brought in by rail from the Furness Peninsula.

[6][7] In 1945, Carnforth railway station was used as a location for the David Lean film Brief Encounter, starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

[11] Carnforth is in the parliamentary constituency of Morecambe and Lunesdale, represented since 2024 by Lizzi Collinge of the Labour Party.

It has smaller surgeries in Arnside, Bolton-le-Sands, Halton, and Silverdale, to serve patients in outlying villages.

[19] It is within the North Lancashire clinical commissioning group and patients are served by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

[20][21] Carnforth railway station is served by Northern Trains on three lines:[22] The West Coast Main Line passes through the station, but Avanti West Coast trains do not stop here; passengers must travel south to Lancaster or north to Oxenholme for destinations between London Euston and Glasgow Central.

Bus services in the town are provided by Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire and Kirkby Lonsdale Coaches.

Routes connect the town with Lancaster and Morecambe to the south, and to Milnthorpe, Kendal and Keswick in the north.

Both the Lancashire Coastal Way and the Bay Cycle Way skirt the western side of Carnforth, crossing the River Keer by the footbridge north-west of the town.