Seton Palace was situated in East Lothian, a few miles south-east of Edinburgh near the town of Prestonpans. Often regarded as the most desirable Scottish residence of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the palace was erected in the 15th century by George, 4th Lord Seton and was similar in style to his house at Winton.
The owners of Seton Palace, the Earls of Winton, had their estates confiscated after the 1715 rebellion. By the 1780s the palace was a ruin and in 1789 the owner of the site, Lt Col Alexander Mackenzie of the 21st Dragoons, commissioned Robert Adam to build Seton Castle. The remains of the old building were demolished and cleared by 1790.[1]