Rosslyn Chapel

Formally known as the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, Rosslyn is a 15th-century chapel located at the village of Roslin in Midlothian, outside Edinburgh. It was founded on a small hill above Roslin Glen as a catholic collegiate church in the mid-15th century. The chapel was founded by William Sinclair – 1st Earl of Caithness of the Scoto-Norman Sinclair Family. Rosslyn Chapel is the third Sinclair place of worship at Roslin, the first being in Roslin Castle and the second (whose crumbling buttresses can still be seen today) in what is now Roslin Cemetery. After the Scottish Reformation (1560), Roman Catholic worship in the chapel was brought to an end, although the Sinclair family continued to be Roman Catholics until the early 18th century. From that time the chapel was closed to public worship until 1861, when it was opened again as a place of worship according to the rites of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Since the late 1980s, the chapel has also featured in speculative theories concerning a connection of Freemasonry, the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail. It was prominently featured in the 2003 bestseller the Da Vinci Code and the subsequent movie starring Tom Hanks!