Abstract Background: Bacterial meningitis remains as a major cause of mortality and morbidity in many developing countries and the highest burdens of the disease occurs in sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia. Data on the profile of bacterial meningitis and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the isolates is limited in Ethiopia and particularly in the study area. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify bacterial pathogens from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and to determine their antimicrobial susceptibility profile at Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital (FHRH). Method: Hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted on 176 Cerebrospinal Fluid samples collected from patients presumptive for meningitis at Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital (FHRH).Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) was collected by an experienced clinician aseptically. Bacteriological culture and identification of the isolates was done following the standard microbiological procedures. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) was performed using disk diffusion method. The data was entered, cleaned and analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 for Windows. Descriptive statistics were used to present and summarize the findings. Results: Of the 176 study participants, 112(63.6%) were males and 70 (39.8%) of the study participants were infants and neonates. The mean age of the study participants was at 14.3 (ranged from 1 day to 68 years). 8(4.5%) CSF samples were found culture positive. Gram negative isolates at 5(62.5%) were predominant that includes E. coli 3 (37.5%), K. pnemoniae and P. aeruginosa each 1 (12.5%). The remaining three isolates were S. aureus. Gentamycin (100%) and Ciprofloxacin (100%) were found effective drugs against the S. aureus. Similarly, Gram-negative isolates were found sensitive for ceftazidime (100%) and ceftriaxone (100%).The overall multidrug resistance rate was 75%. Conclusion: In this study, the bacterial isolation rate from CSF was relatively lower (4.5%). The following isolates; S. aureus, E. coli, K. pnemoniae, P. aeruginosa were identified and nearly one third of these were found multi-drug resistant. Based on this baseline data, large scale study with sound design is warranted. Keyword: Cerebrospinal fluid, Types of bacterial isolates, Antibiotic susceptibility, FHRH