Bishops' Palace, Castle Street, Dornoch

The Bishops' Palace on Castle Street in Dornoch dates back to around 1500 and was significantly rebuilt after a fire in 1570, which also saw the construction of the upper part of the tower with angle bartizans. Extensive alterations and additions were made in 1813-14 and again in 1880. The building is constructed of rubble, with techniques varying from different periods, and features some ashlar dressings.

The structure includes a five-storey tower, which was formerly the southwest tower of the castle complex, and has a stair turret at the southeast door with a roll-moulded architrave. Some windows were enlarged in the 19th century. The corbelled angle bartizans at the southwest are unusually deep and project significantly, possibly featuring a mutilated carved stone at the base of the corbelling that was reset during the 19th century recasting. The tower has gabletted crowsteps and coped apex stacks.

Before the 1813 alterations, the tower was linked to one, two, and three-storey ranges, with the southern-facing raised two-storey range still surviving, which includes a large 16th-century stack that served the vaulted kitchens. The 1813-14 renovations adapted the castle for use as a court, and a possible lower part of a block was added to the south gable of the tower, along with a Gothic door that opens onto a terrace, while parts of the courtyard to the north were demolished.

Around 1880, the north-facing range and southwest block were raised, and gabletted dormers were inserted. A conical-roofed stair turret on the north face may have been added at this time, and a three-storey eastern tower was likely constructed in the 1880s. The roofs are slated.

Inside, little of note remains, but there is a vaulted ground floor, some 16th and 17th-century moulded doorpieces, and vestiges of nook shafts that may have supported an earlier fireplace canopy, along with a later 18th-century chimneypiece.