The wrought iron gates to the Gatehouse once hung at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. The Coat of Arms of Queen Elizabeth 1 of England is over the entrance door. Inside the Gatehouse is furnished with antique tables, chests and desks. Perhaps the finest is the Jacobean table with Tudor rose carvings, circa early 1500s. Antique paintings, engravings and maps can be found throughout the Gatehouse. Of special interest is a 16th century portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. The Gatehouse Reception Center doubles as Gift Shop with a variety of garden related gifts.

Statue is the artist's version of an adult Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World. Sculpted of Carrara marble in Italy by American sculptor, Maria Louisa Lander in 1859, the statue spent two years at the bottom of the sea following a shipwreck off the coast of Spain. The statue was salvaged and shipped to Boston, where it survived a fire. In 1923, Miss Lander willed the statue to the State of North Carolina, where it was displayed in several buildings but was eventually sent to the basement of the old Supreme Court Building as some found her lack of clothing objectionable. When The Lost Colony drama was written by Paul Green, the statue was sent to the waterside theatre. In the meantime, Fort Raleigh became a National Historic Site. Again, she fell out of favor. The statue was shipped to Paul Green's estate near Chapel Hill. When The Elizabethan Gardens were created, Mr. Green sent the statue to its present site, almost a hundred years after her creation. Today, Virginia Dare stands at the place of her birth gazing toward the future despite the odds of the history, mystery and fantasy that surround her.

Inside the pleached allee, a low pierced wall of old, handmade brick surrounds the Sunken Garden, which is the centerpiece of The Elizabethan Gardens. This square area consists of 32 parterres outlined in clipped dwarf yaupon and planted with seasonal flowers. The focal point is the antique Italian fountain and pool with a carved balustrade. Statues representing Apollo, Diana, Venus and Jupiter center each of the four quadrants of parterres.

Hornbeam Walk view across the main axis of the Sunken Garden to the Mount and Well Head on the other side of the gardens. The view is breathtaking when the crape myrtles are in bloom.

Great Lawn is lined with live oaks, hollies, camellias and magnolia trees.

On the south end of the 300-foot Great Lawn is the Lion Couchant Birdbath. A white Carrara marble bowl sits atop a tall marble column with a lion couchant at the base, which means a lion lying down in French.

This towering live oak tree is believed to have been growing on Roanoke Island when the first English colonists landed on the island in 1585.

The central focal point of the Sunken Garden is the antique Italian fountain and pool with a carved balustrade.

Azalea and native yaupon, which is better suited to the island's climate, was used for the hedges instead of traditional English boxwood.

This pierced wall rose garden was built in 1976 in honor of Queen Elizabeth II. Access to the rose garden is through handsome brick piers (shown above), a walkway is centered with a 500 year-old sun dial. Handmade brick pathway continues to a brick "throne" area reached by 3 broad steps guarded by antique marble lion sculptures and is topped with an antique hand-carved white Carrara marble bench that is canopied by white dogwoods. The Rose Garden features the Queen Elizabeth Rose given to The Elizabethan Gardens by Queen Elizabeth II from the royal rose garden at Windsor Castle. The Queen's Rose Garden was dedicated in honor of Queen Elizabeth II by her emissary, British Ambassador, Sir Peter Ramsbotham. The rose collection includes the Virginia Dare Rose, the Lost Colony Rose and the Sir Walter Raleigh Rose.