Arguably Scotland’s most beautiful and enigmatic church, Rosslyn Chapel only reached fame with Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and the subsequent Hollywood film. Since 2003, the number of tourists has ballooned (190,000 in 2017) and this has made possible the financing of the church’s restoration.
The chapel was built in the mid-15th century by William St Clair, the third Earl of Orkney whose home was in Rosslyn Castle. The ornately carved interior – at odds with the architecture of the time – is a monument to the mason’s art, rich in symbolic imagery. As well as flowers, vines, angels and biblical figures, the carved stones include many of the pagan ‘Green Man’ – an ornate face with plants typically coming from its mouth – there are supposedly 100 green men in the church. Other figures are associated with Freemasonry and the Knights Templar. Oddly there are also carvings of plants from the Americas – maize, aloe vera and – that predate Columbus’ voyage of discovery.
The symbolism of these images has led some researchers to conclude that Rosslyn is some kind of secret Templar repository and it has been claimed that hidden vaults beneath the chapel conceal anything from the Holy Grail or the head of John the Baptist to the body of Christ himself.
The chapel is owned by the Episcopal Church of Scotland and holds regular services. It is on the eastern edge of the village of Rosslyn, 7 miles south of Edinburgh’s center.
The 10£ (7 reduced) covers an excellent hourly talk by a guide. The brochure has details of most of the significant carvings.
