Rosslyn Chapel, Roslin

Interesting facts

While repairing the roof pinnacles in 2010, restorers discovered a stone chamber the medieval masons had built specifically to house a beehive.

The chapel holds 213 carved cubes with geometric patterns; one father-and-son team read them as a musical score and composed a piece called the Rosslyn Motet.

Building began on 20 September 1456; the often-quoted date of 1446 is actually the year the founding charter arrived from Rome.

The Apprentice Pillar was originally called the Prince's Pillar; the name changed over time as the story of the murdered apprentice spread.

A full-size plaster cast of the Apprentice Pillar and its neighbouring bay, made in 1871, stands in the Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Its floor plan almost exactly matches the east choir of Glasgow Cathedral, with the same number of windows and pillars, a likeness noted as early as 1877.

Queen Victoria visited the overgrown ruin in 1842 and asked that it be preserved, which led to the restoration and rededication twenty years later.

In 1837 a week of searching failed to find the entrance to the sealed Sinclair vault, so the 2nd Earl of Rosslyn was buried in the Lady Chapel.

Despite later Templar legends, the St Clair family actually testified against the Knights Templar when the order was tried in Edinburgh in 1309.

Foundations of the never-built nave and transepts, extending about 90 feet, were recorded in the nineteenth century, showing how large the church was meant to be.

Why it is worth it

Rosslyn Chapel is a small building that holds an astonishing quantity of carved stone. Every pillar, arch, boss and capital inside is worked with foliage, figures, angels, animals and faces — among them more than 110 "Green Men", heads sprouting leaves and vines. It is one of the most richly decorated late medieval interiors in Scotland, and over the centuries it has attracted almost as many legends as it has carvings.

The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, as the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew; a charter dates to 1446 and building work began in the 1450s. Sinclair intended a large cruciform church, but only the choir was built — fourteen pillars carrying twelve pointed arches — and the planned nave and transepts were never raised. The most celebrated carving is the Apprentice Pillar, wrapped in spiralling bands of foliage. A tale recorded from the eighteenth century says the master mason went abroad to see the original design, returned to find his apprentice had carved the pillar in his absence, and struck him dead in a jealous rage. A Latin inscription nearby declares that wine is strong, the king stronger, women stronger still, but truth conquers all. Carvings sometimes read as maize or aloe have been claimed as proof of contact with the Americas before Columbus; scholars regard the resemblance as coincidence.

After the Reformation of 1560 Catholic worship ended, and in 1592 the altars were destroyed. The chapel was rededicated in 1862 for the Scottish Episcopal Church, which still holds services there. A long conservation programme, carried out from 1997 to 2013 under a temporary steel canopy, allowed the stone roof and walls to be repaired. Popular stories link the chapel to the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail; historians find no basis for them, but Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and its 2006 film brought a surge of visitors. The chapel stands in the village of Roslin on the edge of Roslin Glen, near the ruins of Rosslyn Castle.

Getting there

Rosslyn Chapel is in the village of Roslin in Midlothian, about 11 km south of central Edinburgh. The nearest town is Bonnyrigg, about 4 km away. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport (EDI), about 17 km to the northwest.

From the encyclopaedia

Rosslyn Chapel, also known as the Collegiate Chapel of Saint Matthew, is a 15th-century Episcopal chapel located in the village of Roslin in Midlothian, Scotland. The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness with a ground-breaking ceremony in 1456. After the Scottish Reformation in 1560, it was largely abandoned but, following a visit by Queen Victoria, it was rededicated in 1862. It was the target of a bombing in 1914 during the suffragette bombing and arson campaign. The interior contains some fine carvings which many historians have sought to interpret.

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Rosslyn Chapel, Roslin

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia