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Just off the road from Carlisle and Dalston to Caldbeck
Grid ref 85: NY 371462
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ose Castle is the palace of the Bishops of Carlisle, and although not open to
the public, may be viewed from the nearby road, or the public footpath from Rosebank to
Raughton Head. Although it looks Victorian, it has parts dating from many centuries, the
oldest being the pele tower -
Strickland's Tower, of 1340, which is probably built on the site of an earlier Motte and
Bailey.
riginally the castle was built round four sides of a central courtyard, though
two sides of this has now gone. Bishop Strickland's Tower was burnt, with much of the rest
of the castle, by parliamentary troops in 1648 during the Civil War. It was restored in
the 1760's, and then more substantially for Bishop Percy by Anthony Salvin in 1852.
he extent of the demolition after the damage caused by the Civil War is
evident, when you see that the two surviving wings have been substantially rebuilt since
the medieval period. Everything was remodelled during the time of Bishop Percy (1826-56),
when all evidence of the classical facade was eliminated. Much of this work was done by
Thomas Rickman in the period 1829-31.
he landscaping of the terraces and rosary was done for Bishop Percy by the
noted horticulturist Sir Joseph Paxton.
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he front door contains one of the few survivals from the time of Bishop
Rainbow (1664-84) - a lock dated 1673 and initialled A.P. for Lady Anne Clifford, countess
of Pembroke. When she was restoring her castles, she gave a number of similar locks to
several of her friends of whom Bishop Rainbow was one. A portrait of Lady Anne hangs in
the hall, next to the door. Wordsworth
and Coleridge, who inspected the house in 1803, were delighted and found 'all but perfect
- cottage comfort and ancestral dignity'.
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