The gardens have echoes of different fashions in gardening. This includes the Elizabethan knot garden; the surrounding landscaped parkland with glorious views out to the High Fells; the herbaceous terrace; and the wild garden . This is a plantsman's garden with an extraordinary breadth and depth of plant varieties. There is a very good collection of roses; a timeline of apple trees; the magnificent Silver Fir Abies Cephalonica which has the largest girth in the UK which had been a gift from Joseph Banks, the botanist, in the 1840s; and the Himalayan blue poppies Meconopsis grandis Dalemain. In the Spring there are carpets of snow drops, aconites and later daffodils. Yet, this is also a garden for imagination – there is a box topiary dragon; a sleeping earth giant; or, through a door from the light formal garden, Lob’s Wood leafy green with beech trees. Dalemain won the Garden of the Year Award, sponsored by the Historic Houses Association and Christie's, in 2013.

We regret that dogs are not permitted in the Historic Gardens. They are however very welcome in the Great Barn Tearoom and there are good walks starting from Dalemain.