Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland

The St. Clair family are descendants of Rognvald ‘the Mighty’, Chief of the Orkneys, and Earl of Moere and Romsdahal, in Norway in the 9th Century. They are descended from the Viking Rollo, and their ancestor, another William St. Clair, accompanied William the Conqueror to England and fought at the Battle of Hastings. This first William was given lands by King Malcolm of Scotland, and even escorted the King’s new bride, Queen Margaret (later St. Margaret), from Hungary. He was given a life interest in the Barony of Rosslyn by King Malcolm, who also made him Warden of the Southern Marches.  His son, Henry, succeeded him and fought for King Malcolm. He was rewarded with the Barony of Pentland, and Henry was with the King when he died at the siege of Alnwick, in 1093. Henry’s son, also a Henry, was knighted by King David I of Scotland and made a Privy Councillor. He was sent by the King, as Ambassador of Scotland, to negotiate with Henry II for the lands of Northumberland. Throughout generations, the St. Clair family were prominent and trusted members of the Scottish nobility. Rosslyn Chapel was dedicated in 1450, and was built as a Collegiate Chapel, dedicated to St. Matthew.  Its' founder was William St. Clair, he founded the chapel at Rosslyn for his family. In 1484, William St. Clair died and was buried in the unfinished chapel he created. These are all the basic facts of the family’s history, but this is not what Rosslyn Chapel is known for.

It is difficult to know where to start with this history of Rosslyn Chapel, and even more difficult to identify fact from fiction. If we move to the 14th Century, before Rosslyn Chapel was built, maybe we can find a foundation for it's legends. In the early 14th Century, Henry St. Clair had succeeded to the lands at Rosslyn, and he had two sons, John and William, who both fought for Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314. The Scottish Wars of Independence had started in 1296, and while Edward I was busy trying to control Scotland, in France the Order of the Knights Templars were coming to an end.  The Order was started in 1118, to protect pilgrims on route to the Holy Land.  The Templars were the first to set up a banking network across Europe, where pilgrims could deposit money in their home country, and withdraw the funds in another. The Templars quickly acquired vast lands throughout Europe, they became the most powerful order, and they established new chapters throughout Europe.  They also loaned money to many European monarchs and nobles. 

At the end of the 12th Century, Muslim armies retook Jerusalem, and the Knights Templar were forced to relocate, having lost their last refuge in the Holy Land. By 1303, the Templars lost their last foothold in the Muslim world, and established a new base in Paris. King Philip of France turned on the Templars, when they denied him additional loans.  On Friday 13th of October 1307, King Philip ordered the arrest of all knights of the Templar Order. (This is believed to be the beginning of the ‘Friday the 13th’ superstition.) Most of the knights were horribly tortured, and confessed to false charges. The French King also put pressure on Pope Clement V, who finally dissolved the Order in 1312.  The Templar's property and assets were given to the Knights Hospitallers, but most of their wealth was seized by the King, who no longer needed to repay his debts. Many of the Templars fled France at this time, and it is thought that some came to Scotland, as England had also outlawed the Order. The Templars also had a reputation of having religious artifacts, which included the Holy Grail, fragments of the True Cross, amongst others, and it was rumoured that they had even discovered the Temple of Solomon, in Jerusalem. Now what does all of this have to do with Rosslyn Chapel?

There has always been a legend that Rosslyn Chapel is associated with the Knights Templars, even before Dan Brown embellished the story in 'The Da Vinci Code'. Firstly, Rosslyn is different than any other 15th Century church or chapel.  Its carvings are overwhelming, as though the masons were told to do everything over the top and not leave an inch of uncarved stonework. We don’t know why this is, or why it is so different.  Much of the mystery of Rosslyn stems from its intriguing and unique carvings. Also, in 1118, it is said that the Templar leader, Hugues de Payen, was married to a Katherine St. Clair.  It is also said that two members of the St. Clair family were Knights Templar. When the Order fell, Scotland and Portugal where the only two countries in Europe where the Order was not proscribed.  The village of Temple is just a few miles from Rosslyn, and there is a ruined church of the Order there. Some of the carvings at Rosslyn are said to have Templar associations.  It has also been proposed that the St. Clair family had connections with the order of the Freemasons, but the Freemasons did not exist until the 16th Century.  It has also been suggested that the 'Masons Pillar' and the 'Apprentices Pillar' at Rosslyn, are copies of the inner porchway of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, or that Rosslyn Chapel itself is a reproduction of the Temple. Rosslyn is also rumoured to have been a repository for artefacts, ranging from the lost Scrolls of the Temple, to the true Stone of Destiny. It has even been claimed that there is a further crypt, where this hidden treasure can be found, but if that’s true, it’s not been discovered yet. Now, I am in no way proposing that any of this is true, but with so many stories and legends from one location, (and honestly this is just the tip of a giant iceberg when it comes to legends of Rosslyn), I have to think that somewhere in all of this, something might be true.

Another story of Rosslyn Chapel, is that of the 'Apprentice’s Pillar'.  During construction, the master mason is said to have travelled to Rome, and while he was away he entrusted his apprentice to follow his instructions. The apprentice however, started changing the designs and created the ‘Apprentices Pillar'. When the master mason returned and saw the pillar, which was better than his own work, he was enraged by jealousy and struck the apprentice on the head with a blow which killed him. There is a carving at Rosslyn of a man with a cut on his forehead, which would possibly signify the dead apprentice.  Also, there is some historic reference to the chapel’s construction being halted at one point, because of a violent deed.  However, before we take this story as factual, this is not the only church where there is a story like this, and not the only carving with a cut to the head. The story seems to be a medieval cautionary tale, which was told by older craftsmen to their young apprentices, to prevent them getting ideas above their station. This 'apprentices pillar’, of which there are many in other churches, certainly was not carved by an apprentice, as it would take incredible skill to achieve.  I wish I could show you the interior of the chapel.  I only have one old interior photo, as very sadly they do not allow photography inside the chapel. 

Rosslyn Chapel is full of unexplained carvings, and it contains over 100 carvings of the Green Man. You might find one or two of these in other churches, but they are rare. One of the windows in the chapel is surrounded by carvings which appear to be corn and aloe, both species that are native to North America, which had not been reached in 1450 when the chapel was built. To explain this, another legend tells us that William St. Clair, grandfather of the chapel’s founder, was an explorer. This would be Henry St. Clair, Earl of Orkney, and that he secretly travelled to the Americas before Columbus. There is seemingly no end to the legends of Rosslyn, and I am not trying to re-write The Da Vinci Code here, but simply give an idea of some of it’s history.  While I usually try and stick to the facts, which I did in the first paragraph, the really interesting stuff about Rosslyn is not the facts, it really is the many legends which surround it. It is also in it’s carvings, which are simply so different than what we see anywhere else. Exactly what William St. Clair was intending to achieve with this building, in the 15th Century, can now only be guessed at. 

The Reformation in Scotland, meant that Rosslyn Chapel was closed in 1592.  Oliver St. Clair was ordered to destroy its altars. It wasn’t until 1736, that Rosslyn Chapel’s windows were finally glazed by Sir James St. Clair.  The chapel lay empty and unused for centuries, but it was visited, in 1842, by Queen Victoria, who stated that it should be ‘preserved for the country’.  It wasn’t until 1950 that conservation work began on the building. Unfortunately, Rosslyn is a lesson in why you need to use the correct materials in old buildings.  However, at the time, they thought it would be a good idea to cover all the stone in a magnesium fluoride and cement slurry.  I cringe just writing that, as all this did was begin to degrade the carvings. They tried to seal the stone, but what it actually did was seal in the moisture.  Medieval buildings work, because the stone can get wet and then dry out. If it is not allowed to dry, the stone will become saturated, in this case with pollutants.  This also caused condensation, and allowed algae to grown in the chapel, which had for hundreds of years, not had an issue.  The report in 1995, found that substantial damage was occurring and that the humidity in the chapel was very high. Restoration work began in 1997. In 2003, Dan Brown wrote the now famous ‘Da Vinci Code’ and in 2006 it was made into a movie. This greatly increased visitors to the chapel, and in 2007 Rosslyn Chapel was awarded a £4.9 million grant, by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Scotland, which allowed for major conservation work and the development of an extensive new visitor centre.