What is recorded here

Three armorial plaques still cling to the east towers of Raphoe Palace, including one bearing the Leslie coat of arms, while a fourth vanished from the walls before 1787 and may now sit buried in the front garden of an ordinary house in William Street. Beaufort saw that missing plaque in 1787, proving the palace once wore more heraldry than it does today. The stones survived every human claim to forget them, but one slipped into domestic life, perhaps under a flowerbed or a child's footpath, still proud and unknown.

There are three armorial plaques (DG070-003009-/010-/011-) built into the E side of the Palace (DG070-003003-); one in the N wall of the SE tower, the second in the S wall of the NE tower and the third (the Leslie Coat of Arms) in the E face of the latter tower. Beaufort noted a fourth armorial plaque (DG070-003012-) when he visited the Palace in 1787 (1787, fol. 17); it is probably that which is now in the front garden of a house in William Street in Raphoe. The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload/revision: 15 December 2011

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