Visit www.MakNap.com
and listen to the only music ever
recorded live inside Rosslyn Chapel

Rosslyn Chapel

Introduction
The Mystery
The History of the Chapel
The Carvings
Templars & Masons
The St Clair Family
Beneath the Chapel
The Thule Society
Earth Energy of Rosslyn
Related Locations
Rosslyn Chapel Today
Further Information
The Rosslyn Chapel Cubes Quest
Temple/Balantrodoch

RELATED LOCATIONS

Rosslyn Castle

The ruins of Rosslyn Castle stand on a rocky promontory beneath the Chapel, an ideal place for defence. And in the glen below there are ideal caves for shelter and hiding - as William Wallace discovered when he hid there after the Battle of Roslin in 1302.

The original castle tower was built shortly after the Battle of Roslin, although there may have been an earlier defensive structure on the site. The Keep was built by Sir Henry St Clair, son of Prince Henry and father of the chapel builder, and the whole castle was extensively added to by Sir William St Clair, builder of Rosslyn Chapel. Interestingly, these works show clear signs of French influence, suggesting that Sir William brought workers from France.

There were two towers, now long gone, called 'Robin Hood' and 'Little John' (the ruins on the bank below the keep may be all that remains of them), in which a later Sir William St Clair allowed gypsies to live in the 16th century.

In Sir William's day, the castle was also the repository of a great number of books, rare and valuable manuscripts. There was a great fire in the castle in 1447 - the year after the founding of the Chapel - but Sir William's Chaplain managed to rescue the trunks containing the most valuable papers.

Rosslyn Castle was again set alight during the war with the English in 1544 and was not fully rebuilt until 1622. Not long afterwards it fell to Cromwell's troops, who used cannon to demolish the north-east and western walls. In 1688 both Rosslyn Chapel and the Castle were ransacked by a mob. Since then it has lain in ruins.

The 'Sleeping Lady'

This legend of Rosslyn Castle's 'sleeping lady' is recorded in the Theatrum Scotiae of 1693, and goes like this:

A treasure worth 'several million pounds' is buried beneath the castle vaults, where it is guarded by one of the St Clair ladies, who, like sleeping beauty, sleeps through the centuries. If she can somehow be awakened, she will point to the place where the treasure is buried, and when this happens Rosslyn Castle will rise from its ruins.

Then there is the curious tale, written of by James Jackson of Penicuik (a village to the south of Roslin) in 1836, of a visit by an Italian, Count Poli, in June 1834. Poli claimed to be a descendant of the last Provost of Rosslyn Chapel, who had been forced out at the Reformation and had settled in Italy. Count Poli had a book describing the chapel and castle as it was when abandoned in the 16th century, which he used when showing Jackson and his companions around the two buildings. In the chapel, Count Poli lamented the absence of the 'splendid tomb' of the early St Clairs in the crypt.

Later, Poli led his companions to a place in the Castle vaults where he knew the 'treasure' to be hidden, and which they broke into. The treasure was not gold or material wealth, but books and manuscripts, the large part of which the Count took away. It is believed that they included a copy of the Rota Temporum, a history of Scotland from 'the beginning of the world until 1535', which is now believed to be in the Vatican Library.

Templar Wood

This wood, on the side of White Hill in the Pentland Hills to the north-west of Rosslyn Chapel, forms shape of the Templar cross.  The centres of the wood, Rosslyn Chapel and the church in the village of Temple form a straight alignment.

Copyright © 2004
Mystery.TV Limited