While you are in Edinburgh, why not visit the Rosslyn Chapel where a scene from the Da Vinci Code based on the famous book by Dan Brown was filmed?
According to legend, the treasure of the fabled Knights Templar is stowed in a still-deeper vault inside the Rosslyn chapel whose entrance is sealed off by a stone wall. Depending on whom you ask, that treasure is the Holy Grail, sacred scrolls from the time of Christ, a fragment of the cross on which he died, or even his embalmed head, secreted out of the Holy Land as the Templars fled prosecution 700 years ago.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because Dan Brown borrowed this legend for The Da Vinci Code. In the book’s climactic scene, the heroes race from London to Roslin, tailed by a hodgepodge group of French police and Catholic thugs. They discover that the Holy Grail itself did once reside at Rosslyn, left there by the Templars so many centuries back, but has since vanished again.
Opening times:
Monday-Saturday
09.30 – 17.00
Sunday
12 noon – 16.45
Last admission is 30 minutes before closing
Guides provide talks throughout the day, which are included in the admission price.
These run at the following times:
Monday to Saturday: 10am, 11am, 12.15pm, 2pm, 3pm & 4pm
Sundays: 1.00pm, 2.00pm, 3.00pm
Admission:
Adults £9.00
Concessions £7.00
A ticket lasts all day and most visitors spend between one and two hours during their visit.
Please see the official Rosslyn Chapel website for more information.
You can do a very beautiful circular loop through the Rosslyn Glen along the river while you are in Rosslyn. This route starts from the graveyard next to Rosslyn Chapel and will go along the glen to Rosslyn Castle.
From Edinburgh city centre, look for a Lothian Service 37 and check that it says ‘via Roslin’ at the front of the bus. The journey from the city centre will take around 45 to 60 minutes and there are stops on Princes Street (shop side) or North Bridge. The bus comes into Roslin village and the Chapel is just a few minutes’ walk from the bus stop at the Original Rosslyn Hotel.