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Published: June 25th 2021
Rosslyn reminded me of the Scrovegni Chapel in Italy . Take no photographs . It takes away the pleasure of others . The chapel is too small and you will cause a gridlock as you stand and take a photograph. The reality - buy a guidebook or a postcard. Sounds like a good ploy to make money doesnt it ?
The car park was large and Gabby was not taking up too much of it . There was plenty of room for vans to stop overnight but yes you guessed it . No photos and no parking overnight . Move on you are not welcome . Just go up the road . There is a CL site . A small property where five vans can stay overnight. There were electric charging points on the park . It was almost empty. Explore the mystery . Discover the history or so the blurb told us. We were waiting and having a coffee whilst we ticked away the minutes until we could gain entry. We eventually walked up to the chapel. The doors were locked and it was clear that there were still some hangers on in the shop from the 12.20 entry
time. They drifted out one or two at a time leaving just two inside . Two who were determined to look at every shelf and at every one of the goods on the shelves. They would not leave and the staff came out to apologise to us. We would not be able to enter until the last visitor was out of the building .
The minutes ticked away. They headed for the door and then stopped . A few more minutes ticked by the doors opened . They came out but then stood outside talking . The staff inside hurried around with sanitisers and cleaners . They scrubbed and polished and scrubbed some more until eventually they let us in. Every nook and cranny had been cleaned . The scanners were working , we cleaned our hands and checked in. We were directed outside to the chapel . Take your time , Walk around it and see the details .
The chapel was small. Only a small portion of it was left intact . It was Gothic with pinnacles and ribs. Pointed barrel vaulted roof . Niches which were now empty . The statues long gone . The
chapel had been built in 1693 and was supported by buttresses . The wall that once formed the inner transept was now outside . There were the usual pointed arched windows . We had the leaflet in front of us and it filled in bits of history we would never had known . I wondered how many people came here before Dan Brown immortalised it in his book The Da Vinci Code .
The leaflet encouraged us to look up. A secret beehive high up . The farmwife saving the goose from the hungry fox . We were the first in and had the place to ourselves . The one way system operated and we were encouraged to look up at the gargoyles, the camel and the faces of the family . The craftsmen had even carved themselves into the stone. It all seemed over- regimented and fussy. Along the North Aisle we walked . We had paid £7.50 each concessionary rate and that seemed very expensive for what we could see. On each side of the North Aisle was a carving of the Devil , the Lovers and the Angel , a crucifixion scene . All the carvings
were fussy . I don't know why they felt that way. We should have been impressed and overawed but somehow the building did not do it for us . We saw the Lamb of God carving which was much used by the Knights Templars , the angel in the arms of St Clair . The St Clair family had built the original chapel in 1414 and it took forty years to complete . We walked the uneven floors and somehow it all felt heavy and over fussy . There was nothing simple about the chapel .Overdressed . Too complicated .
Across from the North Aisle was a Knight with a dog , a Green Man , a pillar carved by the master carver . The Apprentice Pillar of course was much more detailed and as the story goes the master killed the apprentice as the column was finer than any he could have produced . The urban myth medieval style . There was a Lady Chapel and a Dance of Death . All that you would expect in a medieval chapel . An Angel with bagpipes . You probably would not expect that . We descended to the crypt which was perhaps the most simple of spaces . Uncomplicated and a welcome cooling space . By now more people had entered the chapel and there was the hum of chatter around the small building . We edged away past the Seven Deadly sins and the seven Acts of Mercy. Greed appears erroneously as a Mercy . That carvers got that one wrong . A carving of a veil of Veronica was high up on the wall. The veil had been used to wipe Christs brow. There were odd carvings of plants - Aloe Vera and flowers that were exotic .
We escaped at this point . We had seen enough and walked around the burial grounds of the Earls of Rosslyn . Rosslyn should have excited us . It wasnt a disappointment but somewhere in between. We didnt get as much as we should have got from the visit , It was time to go home and we had earmarked a place to stay overnight . Would you stay on a motorway service station overnight ? No we have never done that before . But tonight we would be spending our night at what is described as the best motorway service station in the UK .
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John and Sylvia
John Wallace & Sylvia Bowman Wallace
Rosslyn Chapel
Hi Jen. Sylvia and I were there in 2001. We went on a bus tour from Edinburgh. The chapel was undergoing renovation when we were there but there were few people so we could wander around at our leisure. It was snowing heavily at the time and the rest of the tour - to the local distilleries - was cancelled :(. I don't think we would go back but it was interesting.