PANEL 36    Rosslyn Chapel

This gorgeously decorated and much visited chapel was founded by William Sinclair, the Earl of Orkney and Caithness, in the middle of the 15th century. Only the choir of what was intended as a family church was completed. It stands on a small hill near the dramatically sited Sinclair Castle at Roslin. The sculptural decoration of the interior is dazzling and no expense appears to have been spared in making one of the most beautiful churches in Scotland. But, after the Reformation, the chapel was closed and only reopened in 1861 under the aegis of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Many writers have attempted to make links between Rosslyn Chapel and freemasonry and the Knights Templar but none of these interpretations have so far appeared convincing. Famously, the novelist Dan Brown brought his protagonists in his Da Vinci Code to a denouement at Rosslyn and part of the subsequent film, starring Tom Hanks, was shot at the chapel – all of which has helped bring many thousands of visitors to an otherwise quiet corner of Midlothian.

 

Panel stitched by:

The Apprentice Stitchers

Fiona McIntosh

Anne Beedie

Margaret Humphries

Jean Lindsay

Jinty Murray

Philippa Peat

Barbara Stokes

Stitched in:

Roslin