ROSE CASTLE

Rose Castle was gifted by King Henry III to the Bishops of Carlisle in 1230 and has since been the official residence, palace and battle fortress for 63 successive Bishops of Carlisle. Nestled in the borderlands of England and Scotland, Rose Castle has endured many wars during her time, including a burning attack by Robert the Bruce in 1322, but has also been a place of hospitality, welcoming the royal court of King Edward 1 in September 1300 and the wandering poet William Wordsworth in 1803.

Embodying 790 years of history, Rose Castle has recently turned the page on a new chapter.

The Rose Castle Company acquired Rose Castle and Gardens from the Church Commissioners in 2016 and, after three years of research and planning, has now commenced renovations to bring all bedrooms and bathrooms and associated utilities up to a 21st Century standard of comfort and homely welcome.

With an uninterrupted history, we are just the third owner of Rose Castle since 1230.

The main use of the Castle through the calendar year will be for a succession of single group bookings to have exclusive use of the Castle.

State and Private Dining and Drawing Rooms, the Castle Chapel, Bishops Study and Peace Library rooms, and our fifteen bedrooms - create a special place to "re-imagine".

Ideal for gathering together friends and colleagues to a unique location, to develop and renew trusted relationships and grow friendship and peace, in an atmosphere of convivial hospitality and full respect - is our mission.

The Rose Castle Foundation (RCF) is a peace and reconciliation charity headquartered on the Rose Castle estate. RCF’s vision is to mobilise a global network of reconciling leaders by welcoming strangers from both sides of religious, social, and cultural divides to live and learn together.

Working with communities, leaders, and institutions around the world, RCF runs residential training programmes and resources a global network of alumni to support its mission to equip leaders to transform conflict.

RCF residential programmes will be run at Rose Castle, mostly during weekdays.

Special family occasions and weddings "with a difference" will dominate weekend use, opening up the lawns for large party celebrations using exterior tented pavilion and scented garden spaces too.

Rose Castle has hosted many weddings and religious ceremonies since Bishop Bell built the first-floor Castle Chapel in 1487-1489.

One hundred people can be accommodated via the Castle Chapel entrance doors which sit atop the engraved oak staircase that sweeps from the adjacent State Drawing Room down to the State Dining Room and open doors to the Bishops Lawn.

Corporate entertainment events and corporate strategy off-sites will make use of those weekdays available in the calendar. 

The Bishops Library and Private Drawing and Dining Rooms provide intimate spaces for small workshop groups, whilst the Peace Study works as a boardroom equipped with modern audio-visual resources alongside manual wooden shutters to reduce the ambient southern light, if needed.

International tour groups on itinerary travel tours are welcome, to share the unique history of the Castle that has had near continuous use since 1230 until the present day as the home of the Bishops of Carlisle, each with interwoven history across an array of Vatican Popes and Kings and Queens who appointed them.

Our new Rose Castle home is to be shared, with Open Days for the wider community through the year on select days, and access to those volunteers working in the Rose Castle Gardens and helping to deliver our style of open hospitality.

Our mission is to make each stay so fundamentally different to a hotel. Rather, a place to feel the comfort and openness of our hospitality, to soak in the history of the rose coloured sandstone buildings that have bourn 790 years of dynamic change, to feel the majesty and tranquility of our gardens and grounds, and to feel an emotional and spiritual connection to this place and space.

A space for exceptional experiences and magical moments, indeed!

Come be our guest...