Rosslyn Chapel
A 1456 collegiate chapel that outlasted the Reformation, a suffragette bomb, and Dan Brown.
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William Sinclair built it so canons could sing the liturgy day and night for his family's souls. The altars were smashed in 1592, the building fell to ruin, and Queen Victoria's 1842 visit eventually prompted its 1862 rededication. The Da Vinci Code planted Knights Templar and Holy Grail myths here — medieval historians call that fiction. The genuine 15th-century interior carvings are reason enough to make the trip out to Roslin.
What to look for
- Interior stone carvings that historians have spent centuries debating
- Crumbling buttresses of an earlier Sinclair chapel, still visible today in nearby Roslin Cemetery
- The deliberate hilltop position — Sinclair placed it on a small rise above Roslin Glen
Privately owned and in the village of Roslin, Midlothian — not central Edinburgh; confirm opening hours before making the journey out.
Rosslyn Chapel is one of 28 sights worth the detour in Edinburgh, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Edinburgh pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Edinburgh
- Edinburgh CastleAttacked 26 times over 1,100 years — research calls it the most besieged place in Great Britain.
- Holyrood PalaceScotland's working royal residence since the 1500s — the actual rooms where Mary, Queen of Scots lived are open to walk through.
- The National (Scottish National Gallery)Since 1912, two near-identical neoclassical buildings have stood side by side on The Mound — visitors have been walking into the wrong one ever since.
- National Museum of ScotlandDolly the sheep, one of Elton John's extravagant suits, and a Victorian cast-iron hall — all under one free roof on Chambers Street.
- Murrayfield StadiumScotland's largest stadium opened in 1925 with a Grand Slam win — 70,000 people watched it happen.
- St Giles' CathedralA prayer book read here in 1637 caused a riot that sparked a rebellion pulling three kingdoms into war.