Librarians' Christian Fellowship

Anne Macritchie reports on a visit to Rosslyn Chapel

Five LCF members met for an enjoyable lunch in Henderson’s in Edinburgh’s New Town , we then took the bus to Rosslyn Chapel. There is a large canopy over the Chapel with a walkway underneath it which we climbed up to – this enabled us to see the wonderful carvings on the outside of the building and also have a wonderful view over the wooded Esk valley and Rosslyn Glen and the ruined castle.

We then joined a tour inside the Chapel which is where my title comes in – there are so many beautiful carvings it is quite breathtaking and there is a story associated with many of them. For example there are carvings of plants from the New World including maize which predate the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus as Rosslyn Chapel was built in 1446 by William St. Clair.

There is the famous Apprentice Pillar carved by an apprentice mason while his master was away and more beautiful than the master’s pillar next to it. The master mason was so angry on his return that he killed the apprentice! Many Biblical stories are portrayed and there is the largest number of “Green Men” ( a sort of gargoyle) found in any Medieval building.

There are also frequent references to the Knights Templar and Freemasonry which brings me to the Chapel’s most recent claim to fame as it features at the end of Dan Brown’s book “The Da Vinci Code”. The Chapel is used for weekly services by the Scottish Episcopal Church. The reason for the canopy over the Chapel is that it was suffering from damp is some places but is now drying out without the need for any other treatment. Rosslyn Chapel is certainly a very beautiful building and well worth seeing.