Fifteenth-century carving of astonishing density, in a chapel that was never finished and became famous for the wrong reasons.
Founded in 1446 by William Sinclair, third Earl of Orkney, and intended as a much larger collegiate church. Only the choir was built. Work stopped after Sinclair’s death in 1484 and the walls simply end, which is why the building has the proportions of a fragment.
What was completed is carved to a density that has few parallels anywhere. Every surface — piers, arches, ceiling, corbels — carries figures, foliage, biblical scenes, grotesques, angels, and over a hundred Green Men, more than in any other medieval building.
The Apprentice Pillar
The most elaborate of the columns, with four spirals of foliage twisting up it. The legend, recorded from the eighteenth century, is that the master mason went to Rome to study the original design, returned to find that his apprentice had carved it perfectly in his absence, and killed him with a mallet in a rage. A carved head with a gash in its forehead high in the corner is pointed out as the apprentice.
The story is almost certainly a later attachment. The pillar is extraordinary regardless.
The maize question
Some carvings have been read as depicting maize and aloe, New World plants, in a building begun before Columbus sailed. This has been used to argue for pre-Columbian Sinclair voyages to America. Most art historians read them as stylised wheat or lilies. The chapel’s own interpretation presents both views, which is the right approach.
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown’s novel used Rosslyn as its climax and the 2006 film was partly shot here. Visitor numbers went from about 30,000 a year to nearly 180,000 within two years, which funded a major conservation programme and a new visitor centre.
None of the Grail material has any historical basis, and the chapel says so politely. The Sinclair vaults below have not been opened in modern times, which has not helped calm anyone down.
The setting
The chapel stands above Roslin Glen, a wooded gorge with the ruins of Roslin Castle and good walking. The Battle of Roslin was fought nearby in 1303. The village is also where Dolly the sheep was cloned, at the Roslin Institute, which is an unusual pairing for one small place.
Practicalities
Timed tickets, booked online. Photography inside is not permitted. Allow an hour in the chapel and more for the glen.
Bus 37 runs from the city centre and takes about forty-five minutes. Combined with the walk in the glen it makes a comfortable half day.
