The garden is of unique importance including a 13th century fish pond, walled gardens, moat, woodland walk, vegetable garden, terraced walks, orchard, lawns and recently planted woodland.

While records concerning the castle’s garden and grounds in early years are scarce, several historically important details are available. The fish ponds were restocked in 1319; an area known as ‘Le Herber’ was set aside for vegetable cultivation in the early 1400s; it was noted in 1480 that apples, plums and pears were growing in an orchard around the castle; in 1621 the bishop’s wife sent apples from Rose Castle to Naworth Castle; there were ‘fine walks of oak and ash’ recorded in 1649. Lists of Cumbrian wild flowers recorded in the late 1600s by William Nicolson, 45th Bishop of Carlisle, prove to have great botanical importance and were reproduced and published in 1981 as ‘A Seventeenth Century Flora of Cumbria’. Bishop Nicolson also kept records of plants that were brought from the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and planted in the garden at Rose Castle in 1703. Samuel Goodenough, 54th Bishop of Carlisle, was a keen botanist and the first Treasurer of the Linnean Society of London. It is noted that between 1808 and 1827, he made use of Rose Castle garden and grounds for hosting events. Hugh Percy, 55th Bishop of Carlisle, commissioned the renowned garden designer, Sir Joseph Paxton, to lay out terraces and rose gardens, probably between 1850 and 1855. It is thought that he also designed the Dutch garden area which is recorded in photographs from the early 1900s.