Rosslyn Chapel

Sir William St Clair (1410-80) had several noble titles and was a wealthy Scottish landowner. In 1446 he selected a hilly spot next to his castle just south of Edinburgh on which to start the construction of a church to rival any other. He even had houses built at the site for occupation by the stonemasons, who were also well-paid.

The result, after work was halted 40 years later, was a rectangular Gothic building named Rosslyn Chapel. The foundations show that a much larger, cross-shaped design had been intended. However, the focus was obviously on producing carvings on nearly every inch of the interior sandstone and much of the exterior, creating what visitors describe as a magical, mysterious ambience. The subjects are both Biblical and Pagan, with ‘Green Men’ in rare abundance. Additionally, recent ground-penetrating radar has revealed a sealed underground space, contents unknown.

Major restoration work has had to be undertaken to save the Chapel’s structure, particularly as a huge surge in visitor numbers has occurred since 2003, when the Chapel appeared in ‘The Da Vinci Code’, written by Dan Brown. Indeed, this has largely provided the funding. The carvings, of course, and their possible meanings, are a key feature of the story.

(Images LtoR: FrDr at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, David Dixon at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)