The plaques are strategically placed across the palace’s eastern façade; one sits in the north wall of the southeast tower, another in the south wall of the northeast tower, whilst the third, bearing the Leslie Coat of Arms, adorns the east face of the northeast tower. These heraldic stones would have served as bold declarations of power and lineage, announcing to all visitors the status and heritage of the palace’s occupants.

The story of these plaques takes an intriguing turn thanks to the observations of an 18th century visitor. When Beaufort toured the palace in 1787, he documented a fourth armorial plaque amongst the building’s decorative features. This missing piece of the heraldic puzzle isn’t actually lost; it’s believed to be the very same plaque that now graces the front garden of a house on William Street in Raphoe town. How it made its journey from palace wall to suburban garden remains a mystery, though such relocations of architectural fragments weren’t uncommon during periods of renovation or demolition.

These armorial plaques form part of a broader archaeological landscape that spans millennia of human activity in County Donegal, from Mesolithic settlements through to the grand estates of the 17th century. The palace itself, with its embedded heraldic stones, represents just one chapter in this long narrative, yet these carved emblems continue to speak across the centuries, linking modern Raphoe to its aristocratic past.