Lamphey Bishop's Palace

Lamphey Bishop’s Palace stands in Lamphey, Pembrokeshire, as a ruined medieval complex. The remains include parts of a 13th-century hall and a much larger great hall built in the 14th century by Bishop Henry de Gower. The palace once formed a three-part complex with over twenty rooms and extensive grounds. Fishponds, orchards, fruit and herb gardens spread across the parkland where deer grazed. The site is protected as a scheduled ancient monument and a Grade I listed building. The palace passed from the church to the crown in 1546 during Henry VIII’s reign. It was granted to the Devereux family and later to the Earls of Essex, one of whom spent his childhood there. By 1683 the Owens of Orielton owned the estate, possibly after damage in the English Civil War. Farm buildings appeared in later centuries while the ruins remained standing. Visitors walk among grass-grown foundations and the long stone walls of the great hall. The Grade II* park and gardens still show traces of the old layouts. The quiet fields around the palace stretch out to Lamphey Court’s parkland. Stone fragments of the old hall lie near the entrance. The scale of the medieval complex can still be sensed among the low ruins.