Bishop's Palace

About Bishop's Palace

The Bishop's Palace dates from the late 15th or early 16th century and was originally a manor house of the Bishops of St Andrews in which diocese Stow lay. The Palace was oblong with three storeys and a garret. Within a yard of the main structure are traces of foundations and a circular depression, probably the ‘Bishop's Well’ from which the old Catholic clergy obtained their water.
An excavation in 1984 uncovered the layout of a 17th century building, which was altered on at least two occasions. In its first phase the building formed a domestic wing attached to one end of a hall. This was removed by about the end of the 17th century when the ground floor was divided into two rooms The western room probably used to house livestock. The house was demolished in the early 19th century and there is some evidence for destruction by fire. In front of the house was an enclosed cobbled yard, underneath which was a broad ditch which may have been the old boundary of the Bishop's manor.
The ruins seen in the village are the remains of the 17th century building and not the palace.
Park on Earlston Road and walk down Church Wynd.