Lydstep Palace is a ruinous medieval hall house. Believed to have been built in the late 14th century or 15th century, the building was constructed from limestone and built in two levels, the upper floor containing a hall and the lower floor consisting of several barrel vaulted rooms, likely cellars. The two floors were not connected internally, only by external stone stairs. Speculation as to the purpose of the house varies, some sources attribute the building as a court of the Manor of Manorbier and Penally, but it has also been referred to as a hunting lodge of the Bishop Gower of St. Davids.
The house was traditionally known as the Place of Arms, and it is speculated that this became mutated to the Palace of Arms, leading to its current name of the Palace. The building is also referred to as The Old Palace.
Dryburgh Abbey on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders was founded in 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regular from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland. The arrival of the canons along with their first abbot, Roger, took place in 1152.
It was burned by English troops in 1322, after which it was restored only to be again burned by Richard II in 1385, but it flourished in the fifteenth century. It was finally destroyed in 1544, briefly surviving until the Scottish Reformation, when it was given to the Earl of Mar by James VI of Scotland. It is now a designated scheduled monument and the surrounding landscape is included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.
David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan bought the land in 1786. Sir Walter Scott and Douglas Haig are buried in its grounds.