Rosslyn Chapel and a Good Scottish Breakfast

The stone both of the roof and walls is sculptured with leaves and flowers,

so delicately wrought that I could have admired them for hours. 

~Dorothy Wordsworth, 1803

OK, first things first.  Before I get to the incredible Rosslyn Chapel, I need to say a word or two about Scottish breakfasts. Oh! And, apologies for the absence! I'm in a long distance relationship and that means I have run out of town here and there. I am, however, committing to posting at least once a week when I have access to my computer! 

My most vivid memory of our brief Edinburgh trip decades ago, was waking up in a bed and breakfast to a spectacularly delicious plate of Scottish goodness. The eggs were beyond fresh and while I'm not normally an eater of ham there was the most delectable slab of bacon I'd ever seen in my life. Everything was hot and delicious. The tea was steamy, fresh and flavorful in a way that I don't ever remember tea having been, before or since.

Having said that, we had just come from traveling in Government sanctioned hotels in the then Soviet Union. I'm not knocking all Russian cuisine but 95 percent of what we experienced in Moscow and Leningrad back then (It was so long ago that it was not yet back to being called Saint Petersburgh) I can only really describe the food as boiled and beige. So, you can imagine waking up to the smell bacon and eggs that were not hard boiled to petrified!

Anyway, on the first two mornings of our recent trip I absolutely pigged out on large Scottish breakfasts. On top of the eggs and bacon, I even had vegetarian haggis, beans and bread to soak up every last morsel. I can only do that so much and still button my pants.

So, on day 3 and 4 of Edinburgh I had my breakfast at Hula, at the bottom of Victoria Street in Grassmarket. Yum! Above was my Matcha Tea which resembled something on the wall of the Museum of Modern Art, but what I really loved was their Açai Bowl and their granola topped with yogurt and fresh fruit.

Yummy, healthy and filling! They also had had delicious looking smoothies and avocado toasts. I decided to write this in case anyone is wondering if there are any healthy options in Edinburgh. There are!

There was another place around the corner with great healthy looking faire but they didn't open early enough and we had places to be ...

... like Rosslyn Chapel! My parents had this on their "to do" list, since they'd read about it in the De Vinci Code, and I got on board after watching a BBC Documentary. (Surprise, surprise!) Conveniently, it's only a few miles or so outside of the city of Edinburgh.

Rosslyn Chapel

The Collegiate Church of Saint Matthew

1446

Above, a page from my travel journal, including a feather I found down at a church in the Scottish Borders.

While the Chapel gained fame in the 1990s after the Di Vinci Code, the history of Rosslyn is long with its origins dating back to the 15th century. It was founded by the Sinclair family and the Prince of Orkney and it is still a working church today. There is a Sunday service as well as shorter prayer services during the week. 

It would be an amazing place to go to church! Of course, the romantic in me is envisioning it candlelit with a fabulous choir! Apparently, on occasion the later does happen! Let's go!

‘It came into his mind to build a house for God’s service, of most curious work, the which that it might be done with greater glory and splendour, he caused artificers to be brought from other regions and foreign kingdoms and caused daily to be abundance of all kinds of workmen present as masons, carpenters, smiths, barrowmen and quarriers…..’

~Father Hay, author of A Genealogie of the Saintclaires of Rosslyn, describes the start of Sir William St Clair’s plan.

The detail on the inside of this small, unfinished, gothic cathedral is much more incredible than the exterior but alas there was no photography aloud! There are all of these intricate symbolic and mysterious carvings on what seems to be every inch of the interior.  You wonder as you walk around if the artisans were all in there trying to out do each other!

Here's a great little documentary that includes shots of the interior and its many carvings, large and small, as well as its history.  Once again, it is a BBC Doc. It gets into the restoration work and the behind the scenes on saving the building as well as explaining the work of the stonemasons.  We watched this before our trip.

Here's a little Scottish Harp music to listen to for the rest of the post! It's played on a replica of the "Mary Harp" that I wrote about in my post on the Scottish National Museum.

Many artists and writers have visited Rosslyn over the centuries including J.M.W. Turner, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth and on and on. I can see why they were all so inspired! After Queen Victoria made her visit to the chapel in 1842 she gave her metaphorical thumbs up on conserving the place.

Below, can you see the hand?

Apparently, Sir William paid his masons well and the town of Rosslyn was filled with workers who would build this work of art.  Remains of the Sinclair Castle are nearby but we didn't make it there. We had a long day ahead in the Scottish Borders. There is so much to see and do, everywhere in Scotland, that it's endless!

My parents were inside, listening to the very knowledgeable guide talk about the history of Rosslyn, while I went outside to snap more photos.

One of the things that is so interesting is the mixture of Christian and pagan imagery inside the chapel, including more than 100 little green men! The motif is used in many cultures including druidic and Celtic pre-Christian religions. I did this particular sketch later after our visit.

Seem’d all on fire that chapel proud,

Where Roslin’s chiefs uncoffin’d lie, 

Each Baron, for a sable shroud, 

Sheathed in his iron panoply….

Blazed battlement and pinnet high,

Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair–

So still they blaze, when fate is nigh

The lordly line of high Saint Clair.

~Sir Walter Scott

Rosabelle

Happily the chapel survived the Scottish Reformation and was not demolished, like so many cathedrals in Scotland. (It's now an episcopalian church.) It has survived a lot, including being used as a horse stable by Oliver Cromwell and his men, in 1650! Thank goodness for conservationist and art historians who preserve this type of artistic heritage, that helps us to see history in a vivid, tangible way.

As I said, after Rosslyn we headed for the Scottish Borders to see where some of our ancestors lived and the tiny churches in which they were baptized. That deserves a whole post (or book!) so I'll finish this post with some views of our Air BnB.

Our Apartment in Grassmarket

The window below is the one that looks out onto Grassmarket and up to the Castle. Sorry, it's a repeat  photo from my first Scotland post! 

We could even see the fireworks for the nightly Military Tattoo that was going on! The Sofa was a fold out, so that was my bed.

If you spin around from that spot you see the kitchenette and on the left is the hall that leads to the bathroom, front door, and bedroom.

Here's the cute little bed where my parents slept. I took this the following morning right before we left (hus, the unmade bed). The window goes to the back of the building.

And here is the back of the building with all our luggage. It was waiting for our rental car the morning we left.

To explore the Rosslyn Chapel website, click here

Hula Juice Cafe and Gallery, click here

Next up, the beautiful countryside of the Scottish Borders! Hopefully my typos were at a minimum!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Many blessings and much light!