Rosslyn Chapel
Click on any photo for a more detailed view.

Rosslyn Chapel was an easy bus trip from Edinburgh, only about ten miles, and well worth the visit. It was famous destination even before "The Da Vinci Code". (Disclaimer: "The Da Vinci Code" is a work of fiction. Even its author says so.) But since it was used as the setting for the last scene of the novel, it's gotten a lot more tourist traffic.

The Chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St. Clair, third and last St. Clair Prince of Orkney. After Sir William died in 1484, he was buried in the unfinished Chapel and the larger building he had planned was never completed. What remains, though, is loaded inside with fanciful details, rich in symbolism.

This is what the chapel looked like before reconstruction began and at left, the main door. Not our photos, of course.

This sealed crypt may have been defaced when the chapel was trashed by protestants. Much of the text is illegible. What we can read is "Commit Thy Work to God" across the top and below, the name "George" and possibly "James". Then the word "Edinburi" and "anno domini 1587"
The window above, in a newer portion of the Chapel, is a memorial to a later Earl of St. Clair, an aviator who was killed in World War II.

This mysterious old cabinet was in a room off the crypt. Of course we had to investigate. We opened the heavy door. It swung open slowly creaking on its ancient hinges. It contained...gardening tools.

A stained-glass window above and behind the altar. The workmanship is excellent but, presumably, it is a modern work since the original windows were surely destroyed.

 

Two shots from our walk around the grounds. Sir Walter Scott once observed, "A morning of leisure can scarcely be anywhere more delightfully spent than in the woods of Rosslyn".
As the chapel undergoes badly-needed repairs to the roof the the entire exterior is covered with really ugly scaffolding . The scaffolding, however, provided us an opportunity to see the details of the roof and flying buttresses, and to view the countryside.
A detail of the ceiling. Note the figures of angels hidden among the stars and flowers. The chapel is full of little surprises like this.
This gruesome little sculpture is identified as a 17th Century guild stone with the title "King of Terrors." What guild it might represent and why it would be in the chapel is not explained.

An upside-down bound angel? Who knows what the sculptors were thinking! Our best guess is that it represents one of the fallen angels being cast out of heaven by the archangel Michael.

 

The devil is in the details?

The tomb of William de St. Clair, "Knight Templar." The St. Clair barons date back to 1057 when another William de St. Clair fought in the Battle of Hastings along side his cousin, William the Conqueror.

This is the famous "Apprentice Pillar". The legend is that an apprentice completed this glorious work while the Master was traveling. The Master returned and, it a fit of jealous rage, killed the apprentice.
We've since heard, however, that pillars in other chapels share this legend. But... it could be true.