Edinburgh - Rosslyn Chapel

My mother was the person who turned me onto Dan Brown, the author of The DiVinci Code. I ended up reading and enjoying all of his books. As soon as I knew that we were planning to go to Edinburgh, I knew we would have to make a trip out to Rosslyn Chapel, the location for the climax of the film, and the supposed last resting place of the Holy Grail.


It is a 500 year old church that has a lot of history and mystery. It was origninally built by William St Claire, a nobleman to be his family church. During the reformation, miraculously, it was somehow spared. Cromwell did use the building to house his horses.

Over the centuries it has had a lot of problems however. It has had a leaky roof, and since it is in Scotland, this is a big problem. It had deteriorated to the point that Algae was growing on the inside.

Another miracle came when Dan Brown wrote Rosslyn Chapel into his book, in that tourism to the chapel went from about 8,000 people a year to over 100,000. Surprisingly, unlike many churches that have been featured in his books, Rosslyn Chapel LOVES Dan Brown. The visitors inspired by his books have paid for the new roof, and a lot of the renovation that is now going on at the church. The hope is that these renovations will allow the Church to be here 500 years from now. Most likely, if things had continued as they were, I would have expected the loss of the church in another 100 years at most.

The main things of interest in the church are the Sculptures. And there are a lot of them. The small carvings would have been used as storytelling tools by the clergy. And they are a treasure.

Does Rosslyn Chapel contain Knights Templar Members in its underground vault. Is the Holy Grail hidden on the grounds. Who knows. . .

We both really enjoyed visiting the Church. It was a cloudy rainy day, and this added to the mystery surrounding Rosslyn Chapel.

There was a cute Country Inn not far from the church. We went there for dinner so that my mother could have a Sunday Roast or in this case a Scottish Stone Roast, where they bring you the raw meat and you cook it yourself over a super heated stone. It made for a lovely dinner and easy bus ride back into Edinburgh.







All was good until my mother discovered that she'd left her glasses at the Inn. Thankfully, we were able to grab a cab back out to the Inn to retrieve her glasses. An exciting end to our trip to Scottland.