Spynie Palace

01 / A changed landscape

The palace beside the water

Spynie was a residence for the bishops of Moray for around five centuries. Historic Environment Scotland identifies it as Scotland’s largest surviving medieval bishop’s house. Today the surrounding greenery can make it seem secluded, but the medieval setting belonged to a busier world of people, goods and movement.

The bishops may have settled here in the late twelfth century. Around 1207, Bishop Brice chose Spynie’s church as his cathedral. His successor established a new cathedral at Elgin in 1224, while the bishops continued living at Spynie. The cathedral and palace developed as separate centres of worship and residence.

The palace once stood beside a sea loch offering sheltered anchorage. Much of that former waterside setting has disappeared. The scheduled-monument record places the ruins on a low ridge by the old shoreline and notes buried buildings and cobbled roads outside the enclosure. Those traces remind us that the surviving walls were part of a larger inhabited place.

02 / A statement in stone

The tower three bishops helped shape

David’s Tower is the palace’s commanding landmark. HES gives its height as 22 metres, with six original storeys and an entrance at first-floor level. Bishop David Stewart commissioned it in the fifteenth century, but it remained unfinished at his death. His successor William Tulloch completed the work.

Patrick Hepburn later added the broad gun openings. The bishops’ coats of arms appear on the south wall, alongside the royal arms of Scotland, turning the masonry into a record of patronage. The tower’s present outline therefore represents successive ambitions, rather than the achievement of one builder.

The scheduled-monument description identifies remains of an older round tower incorporated below the great rectangular structure. It also records surviving pieces of the projecting parapet. Look at the changes in shape and the different levels of openings: these help make sense of a building designed to contain many rooms, while presenting an unmistakably formidable exterior.

03 / Life around the courtyard

A palace built to receive company

The tower was only part of a working household. HES’s illustrated account describes the great hall as the principal setting for public functions, with storage beneath and a cluster of service rooms nearby. Kitchens, baking and brewing supported the more ceremonial life of the bishop and his guests.

A water gate gave access towards the loch through a passage below the hall. Elsewhere, accommodation and service ranges changed use over time; the Water Tower eventually became a dovecot. Reading the courtyard through these functions restores some of the activity that a roofless ruin can hide: food arriving, rooms being prepared and the daily work behind a formal reception.

Royal visitors also came here. HES records David II and his court at Spynie in 1362, and James IV visiting during his northern pilgrimage in 1505. Mary, Queen of Scots, was hosted by the Bishop of Moray on her own northern progress in 1562. Such visits place this residence within the political life of the kingdom.

04 / A dangerous neighbour

The Wolf of Badenoch and the bishops’ world

Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, became notorious as the Wolf of Badenoch. His conflict with Bishop Alexander Bur belonged to a struggle over land and power in the north. HES’s account describes protection payments, armed followers and rival interests, giving the dispute a wider setting than a single personal quarrel.

In 1390, Alexander’s men burned Elgin Cathedral. The cathedral’s official monument record identifies the attack and the rebuilding that followed. The damage demonstrates the risks faced by the bishops, but it does not by itself prove that Spynie Palace was attacked or explain precisely what happened within its walls that year.

The episode also helps explain the importance of a secure episcopal residence. A bishop held land, administered wealth and dealt with powerful neighbours as well as overseeing religious life. Read against that background, Spynie’s substantial enclosure and later great tower belong to a world in which an impressive home could also be a necessary place of protection.

05 / Decline and rediscovery

What the ground can still tell us

Spynie continued as a bishop’s residence long after the Reformation, before passing to the Crown in 1682 and being rented out. Its later history brought decline, but the loss of roofs and floors was not the end of the evidence. Archaeological work has recovered details that cannot be read from the standing tower alone.

The excavation summaries in the national record describe trial trenches in 1986 that revealed buildings beyond the palace walls and cobbled approaches to its entrances. Work the following year found drains, floor surfaces and changing arrangements around the Watergate. These are the less conspicuous structures that connected the grand rooms to the practical workings of the site.

Later excavation distinguished phases beneath the surviving southern range and identified an early ditch containing redeposited medieval pottery. Such findings add depth to the visible ruin without making every buried feature fully understood. Spynie remains a place where the outline of the buildings is impressive, and the smaller traces continue to complicate the story of how people used them.

06 / The reported presences

Figures at the tower entrance

In The Spirits of Spynie Palace, published on Scottish Paranormal in 2024, Greg Stewart collects reports of a threatening male figure at the first-floor entrance landing of David’s Tower. Some people have associated him with the Wolf of Badenoch. Stewart also describes an elderly woman reportedly seated in an opening near the entrance, without an identified name or history.

The same article includes accounts of nausea and headaches higher in the tower, an unusual mist said to have knocked someone over, and a reported phantom lion. These are distinct claims gathered in one narrative. The article does not provide named witnesses, precise incident dates or supporting recordings with which to examine them independently.

The details make Spynie’s haunted reputation unusually varied. They deserve to remain recognisable as reported experiences, with their causes unresolved. A physical sensation or a figure’s apparent manner cannot establish identity, and a suggested historical connection remains an interpretation of the account.

07 / Planning your visit

Check the season and the stairs

On 16 September 2026, HES lists free admission, with donations welcome. Its published season runs from 1 April to 30 September, daily from 10am to 4.30pm, with last entry at 4pm. The palace closes for winter from 1 October to 31 March. Specific notices also announce closures on Sunday 20 and Thursday 24 September 2026; check the official page again before travelling.

The approach from the level gravel car park is about 40 metres, on a gently rising gravel path. Routes inside use gravel and cut grass, with uneven ground and archaeological remains projecting above the surface. The visitor centre has step-free access and there is an adapted toilet in the shop area.

David’s Tower requires more care: uneven stone steps lead into a basement that can be very dark, while upper levels use a historic spiral stair. Discuss your access needs with the site before visiting. Allow time for the courtyard as well as the tower, and follow any restrictions displayed when you arrive.

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