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Rosslyn Chapel, the Knights Templar and Dalhousie Castle
Posted on 03/12/2007
Rosslyn, Roslyn or Roslin Chapel, built by the Knights Templar, has found new fame as the possible resting place of the Holy Grail since the publication of the Da Vinci Code, attracting visitors from all over the world. Of the hotels near Rosslyn Chapel, the most appropriate hotel in which to stay is, without question, Dalhousie Castle Hotel, a magnificent 13th century fortress set within acres of wooded parkland on the picturesque banks of the River Esk. It's the sort of place where you might find a clue to the whereabouts of the Holy Grail! Not only does it pre-date Rosslyn Chapel but it also pre-dates Rosslyn Castle.
Incidentally, if you’re on a Da Vinci Code mission, we have a special Da Vinci Code Experience you might enjoy.
Rosslyn Chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair. In the 12th century, the grand master of the Knights Templar, an ancient order going back to the days of the Crusades, was married to Katherine St Clair and two of the grand masters in the 13th and 14th centuries were members of the St Clair family. When the Knights Templar were being persecuted by the Pope in the early 14th century, some of the knights escaped to Scotland and it stands to reason that Rosslyn was their destination. Nearby Dalhousie Castle was already there and could well have played host to the Knights Templar.
After Sir William died in 1484, he was buried in the unfinished Chapel and the larger building he had planned was never completed. But the foundations of the nave are said to have been excavated in the nineteenth century and found to extend ninety-one feet beyond the Chapel's original west door, under the existing baptistry and churchyard.
What was built however is extraordinary enough, 'This building, I believe, may be pronounced unique, and I am confident it will be found curious, elaborate and singularly interesting, impossible to designate by any given or familiar term' wrote Britton on his Architectural Antiquities of Britain (1812), adding somewhat despairingly that its 'variety and eccentricity are not to be defined by any words of common acceptation.
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