There are conflicting claims regarding the location of Haddington’s ‘palace’. On the one hand there is the Court Street site to the west of the burgh marked by a plaque on the wall of the court building: ‘This is the site of the Royal Palace occupied by King William I styled William, the Lion, and here his son Alexander II of Scotland was born 24th August 1198.’ On the other, proposed by Robertson (2019), a site on an area to the east of the burgh formerly Haddington House garden, now known as St Mary’s Pleasance, where an informaon panel states with equal certainty ‘early Royal charters reveal that the garden was part of a King’s Palace and Royal Garden relang to David I of Scotland.
There is an ongoing debate within the society and this page pulls together some of the documentary work and field survey undertaken to help you make up your own mind.
Court Street Palace 2025 – Helen Robertson
The Haddington Palace question – Eric H Glendinning and Jean McKinnon
St Mary’s, Pleasance, Haddington, Geophysical Survey – AOC Archaeology Group
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