Today we ve been given access to what is undoubtedly one of THE
must see places in Scotland. Of all the marvellous places in
our wonderful country, there can be few more stunning places to visit
than Rosslyn Chapel. So if you re interested in the people,
places and events in Scottish history then click the subscribe
button at the bottom right of the screen. In the meantime, let me tell you its story.
When people think of Rosslyn Chapel, they think of stunning stone masonry and sculpture,
Dan Brown s Da Vinci code, The Knights Templar and The Holy Grail
and we ll touch on all that mystery and wonder
but the most wonderful, the most mysterious thing of all
is the chapel itself. It s not just a story of stunning architecture,
mysterious history and enigmatic symbology, it s also a story of survival.
Rosslyn Chapel was founded by Sir William St Claire in 1446
and he s etched into the very walls of his creation.
It was built at a time when most people couldn t read.
If you wanted to tell biblical tales or for that matter the story of your family
you told it through word of mouth or imagery and sculptures
In Scotland lots of that was destroyed during the reformation, yet here
Rosslyn Chapel stands as a monument to the Sinclairs....
or should I say St Claires. Rollo was the Viking son of the
great Orkney Jarl, Rognvald In the early 10th century
he raided, invaded, fought with, and finally made peace with King Charles the Simple of France.
The price of peace with Rollo was the hand of the king s daughter
and the lands that were given to this Norseman, who became the first Duke of Normandy.
You can see the Norse link in the chapel. At the base of its most spectacular pillar,
we can find the eight dragons of Neifelheim, that in Scandinavian mythology lay at the base
of the great ash tree that bound heaven, earth and hell together.
The treaty between Charles and Rollo was signed at St Claire sur Epte ,
and so the St Claire family was born. In time these Scandinavian Norsemen
became Normans, and five generations later William St claire Crossed the English channel
with his cousin William of Normandy. Before long he had won favour with Malcolm
III of Scotland, Malcolm Canmore. There s a carving in the south isle
that some say represents William St Claire, who became known as William the Seemly,
carrying Malcolm s wife to be and the future Saint Margaret back to Scotland.
Does the cross represent the piece of the one true cross, the holy rood,
giving us the name for the abbey and palace of Holyrood?
He was certainly made Margaret s cup bearer and granted life rent of the lands here at Roslin.
William the now Scottish Norman died fighting off attacks from the English Normans.
His son Henry was knighted by Malcolm Canmore and was with him when the king was killed in a
foolhardy raid south of the border. I ve made a video about that,
which will be online soon. You should watch it
It was that Henry s son Henry who first lived here at Rosslyn
not in the chapel, but before the chapel was the castle.
Young Henry was knighted by David I and made an ambassador by Willliam the Lion,
the St Claires were close to the Scottish crown and the walls of the chapel show it.
A face almost hidden in the ornate carvings of the Lady Chapel is said
to be the death mask of Robert the Bruce In the north isle is the burial stone of a
later William St Claire who was one of the knights
entrusted with the task of taking Bruce s heart on crusade to the holy land
and died fighting the Moors in Spain at the Battle of Teba along with Good Sir James Douglas.
The floriated cross and the sword is often associated with the Knights Templar,
who, rightly or wrongly have themselves been associated with Robert the Bruce
and Bannockburn and this place. It was a later William St Claire who
built this magnificent edifice? In 1436, at the height of the
Auld Alliance and the 100 Years war, William had been entrusted with the job
of taking James I s daughter Margaret to France to marry the French king.
Some say that this is what s represented by the mounted knight and passenger
carving we mentioned earlier. It was when he came back after
travelling on the continent that he decided to build a magnificent colligate chapel
but first he had to build the village of Roslin.
You see the original village was the housing for the stonemasons, the carpenters,
the workers who, once they d built their
own accommodation set about the years long task of building the chapel.
Ideas were intricately carved first on wood then etched into stone.
The length of the project can be seen in the story of the mason and his apprentice.
I won t spoil the whole story for your visit, but suffice to say that the master mason carved
this most fabulous pillar linking the north isle to the Lady Chapel Then,
after travelling Europe for inspiration, retuned to find that his apprentice
had surpassed his master s work with an even more glorious pillar.
But it s only when you come outside that you see what we ve really missed
because you can see by the way the stones have been cut
that this wasn t meant to be the end of the chapel.
This was meant to be the start of the nave that would extend in this direction.
What is now the chapel was only the apse, or choir of the building planned
with the transepts intended out to the side and the nave extending ninety-one feet to
the west to create an even more glorious monument to William St Claire s imagination.
Of course, we can only imagine what it might have been,
were it not for the death of William St Claire.
When his son succeeded him, he built a stone vaulted roof on the choir and left it at that.
William s death in 1484 had made for a shakey start but in the next hundred years bigger
challenges were to come with the reformation .
Mobs were rampaging all over Scotland and destroying
all signs of idolatry and pagan imagery Rosslyn chapel is full of images that would have
been seen by radical Presbyterians as idols Dragons and scroll bearing angels from the Book
of Revelation, the prodigal son feeding swine, the crucifixion of Christ,
angels rolling away the stone, a crucifix carrying angel,
a young couple turning their back on Satan Of course, there are more Templar associated
carvings, like the lamb of God, Agnus Dei In lots of places you ll find angels
carrying a shield and engrailed cross of the St Claire family,
but you ll also find little green men, not Martians,
but pagan fertility symbols encompassing nature, interspersed with other images
around the chapel showing the transition from winter to spring, to summer then autumn.
Mobs drunk on reforming zeal did come out here to rid Scotland of idolatry.
You can see literally hundreds of empty niches that presumably
would have contained ornate statues. There is one, Victorian era conciliatory
statue of the virgin mary, but again, can you imagine how this place could
have looked today for an irreligious, but appreciative tourist like me.
This whole place is fantastic, but the Lady Chapel the location for the alters
is even more special. The groined vaulting of four ribs, arch to pendant
bosses of stunning complexity, this one depicting the birth of Christ.
Scenes from the nativity etched into stone and positioned perfectly.
Whether you look up or down, east or west there s an intricacy and
a detail that fills you with wonder. I don t think anything can prepare you for the
sheer number of exquisite carvings and symbols from green men, to the dance macabre,
there s musicians of all sorts, and of course being Scotland, that includes bagpipers
Needless to say, post reformation the alters, that would be the location
for sacraments, caused problems . In 1589 John Knox s brother no less
was censured for baptising the laird s child in this house of idolatry.
In 1592 Oliver St Claire was hauled before the general assembly
and threatened with excommunication if the alters were still intact by August 17th
and by the end of August they had been destroyed.
At one point in 1650, When Cromwell s army invaded,
this beautiful chapel was where they kept the horses of General Monke and his troops.
This must have been the world s most ornate stable ever.
In spite of disdain and destruction by religious zealots Rosslyn Chapel survived.
Through the years it became a haven and a stopping point for artists, painters poets and writers
Robert Burns, Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Turner, Boswell and Johnstone
In 1862 it was rededicated by Bishop of Edinburgh to become the local Episcopalian church
but even then, the challenges weren t over . At the height of WW2 some local worthy wrote
to the minister for labour complaining about the fuel and
the manpower used up in ministering to a small congregation and asking for it to be shut down ,
but it survived, then protective measures to stop water penetrating
the stone made things worse by keeping water in. This 20th century solution was damaging the very
stone wrought to speak its 15th century message. It took 14 years and a huge umbrella to allow
the chapel to dry out through the roof before new conservation work was done
It was during that 14-year drying out that they filmed the movie of Dan Brown s Davinci Code,
whose character s search for the holy grail brought them down here to the crypt
and delivered Rosslyn Chapel the holy grail of tourism income
to help preserve it for us in future. To me Rosslyn Chapel ITSELF
is both a blockbuster movie script AND a priceless relic
that s survived the turmoils of the ages the buffeting from time,
elements and religious zealots I ve said this is a must see and it is.
To give you a glimpse through that lens can only whet your appetite.
You have to come here and see for yourself. There s another must see place to visit in
Scotland coming up on screen now. In the meantime