While in Edinburgh I figured it might be worthwhile having a look at Roslyn Chapel. The Chapel istself has an interesting history but this has been overlaid in recent times by all sorts of claims relating to the Knights Templar and the bloodline of Jesus. Dan Brown picked up on this stuff for his book The Da Vinci Code and the thing took off from there.

I had been told that you had to pay to go into the Chapel but I thought, if I hadn't enough time to do the tour, I could get some good outside photos at least. I was really pissed off to find the Chapel exterior largely obscured by a wall and that you had to pay (£9 per head) to even get in to the outside, so to speak.

Although started in 1456, the Chapel was never completed and only the choir and lady chapel were built. The Chapel has undergone substantial renovations over time.

Given that I had come this far I decided to try and see as much as possible from the outside and I found a small path in a field that led around the back.

For most of this the wall still obscured the lower half of the Chapel but I kept going.

And, finally coming out on the other side, I got a better view of the Chapel, albeit through an iron railings.

This is a detail of the left side of the previous picture.

I have no idea who is buried here, but it is certainly an ornate, if somewhat vulgar, piece of work. Some of the St. Clair family, no doubt.

It was Mr. Flanagan, whom I met in Liberton Cemetery at work tarting up a tombstone, who alerted me to the proximity of Roslyn. He also told me a version of the story of the Apprentice Pillar and you can read a slightly different version in the link above. What the two versions have in common is that the Master took a hammer to the Apprentice's head and did him in.

This is a detail of the only door I could see. Presumably there were statues in the niches at some stage in the Chapel's history.

The visitor centre, on the far side of what you see here, is quite new. It has a small coffee dock and an extensive array of books, postcards and the usual range of souvenirs (keyrings etc.). The centre alone cost something in the region of £3 million and it seems to have been built following the upsurge of interest in the alleged Templar/Jesus connections and Dan Brown's book.

The owners of the Chapel have been accused of exploiting the interest raised by the book despite the historical inaccuries involved. Since 2008, photos are not allowed inside the church and the only way to take home a visual record is to by the postcards and booklets on sale in the shop.

I'll leave you with a final look at this side of the Chapel, without the railings, which I have temporarily spirited away through the intercession of the Jesus bloodline.

I should probably add that there is an equally, if not more interesting location a few yards down the road, the history of which is absolutely verifiable. This is the Roslyn Biological Centre where Dolly the Sheep was cloned.

A genuine miracle of the first order. Amen.