Carlisle Castle Carlisle Castle is situated in Carlisle , in the English county of Cumbria , near the ruins of Hadrian ' s Wall . The castle is over 900 years old and has been the scene of many historical episodes in British history . Given the proximity of Carlisle to the border between England and Scotland , it has been the centre of many wars and invasions . Today the castle is managed by English Heritage and is open to the public . The castle until recently was the administrative headquarters of the former King ' s Own Royal Border Regiment now county headquarters to the Duke of Lancaster ' s Regiment and a museum to the regiment is within the castle walls . History . Carlisle Castle was first built during the reign of William II of England , the son of William the Conqueror who invaded England in 1066 . At that time , Cumberland ( the original name for north and west Cumbria ) was still considered a part of Scotland . William II arrived and drove the Scots out of Cumberland to claim the area for England . He ordered the construction of a Norman style motte and bailey castle in Carlisle on the site of an old Roman fort , with construction beginning in 1093 . The need for a castle in Carlisle was to keep the northern border of England secured against the threat of invasion from Scotland . In 1122 , Henry I of England ordered a stone castle to be constructed on the site . Thus a keep and city walls were constructed . The existing Keep dates from somewhere between 1122 and 1135 . The act of driving out the Scots from Cumberland led to many attempts to retake the lands . The result of this was that Carlisle and its castle would change hands many times for the next 700 years . The first attempt began during the troubled reign of Stephen of England . The Scottish King , David captured the city , exploiting the domestic troubles of England . It was he who completed the walls and stone keep . However the English seized back the city and castle several years later . On the 26 March 1296 John ' The Red ' Comyn , and for a few months Lord of Annandale , led a Scottish host across the Solway to attack Carlisle . The then governor of the castle , one Robert de Brus , deposed Lord of Annandale , successfully withstood the attack , before forcing the raiders to retreat back through Annandale to Sweetheart Abbey . From the mid - 13th century until the unification of England and Scotland in 1603 , Carlisle castle was the vital headquarters of the Western March , a buffer zone to protect the western portion of the Anglo - Scottish border . Henry VIII converted the castle for artillery , employing the engineer Stefan von Haschenperg . For a few months in 1568 , Mary , Queen of Scots was imprisoned within the castle , in the southeast corner which has since been demolished . Later , the castle was besieged by the Parliamentary forces for eight months in 1644 , during the English Civil War . The most important battles for the city of Carlisle and its castle were during the second Jacobite rising against George II of Great Britain in 1745 . The forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart travelled south from Scotland into England reaching as far south as Derby . Carlisle and the castle were seized and fortified by the Jacobites . However they were driven north by the forces of William Augustus , Duke of Cumberland , the son of George II . Carlisle was recaptured , and the Jacobites were jailed and executed . That battle marked the end of the castle ' s fighting life , as defending the border between England and Scotland was not necessary with both countries again one in Great Britain . Some parts of the castle were then demolished for use as raw materials in the 19th century to create more or less what is visible to the visitor today . The Army moved in to take hold of the castle , which was the regimental depot of the Border Regiment until 1959 , with control for maintenance passing to the Department of Environment later English Heritage . List of Governors . Governors appointed by :