Rosslyn Chapel and The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code is one of the year's most talked about books. Mark Oxbrow looks at the mystery and the link with the Rosslyn Chapel

Everyone loves a good mystery, which is why The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown hit number one in the New York Times bestseller list and become a multimillion-selling blockbuster in the United States.

Its exciting mix of thriller and historical mystery took America by storm with Columbia Pictures snapping up the film rights.

The Da Vinci Code is an intricate tale; full of intrigue, secret societies and puzzles, eventually leading the reader to Scotland, to Rosslyn Chapel and on the quest for the Holy Grail.

Rosslyn Chapel, a few miles south of Edinburgh, has become world famous over the last decade. It lies in the sleepy village of Roslin which hit the headlines with the cloning of Dolly the Sheep at the Roslin Institute. The chapel itself has become the unlikely centre of international attention as the supposed last resting place of the fabled Holy Grail.

Numerous alternative history books have tried to connect Rosslyn with the Knights Templar, the Ark of the Covenant, the origins of Freemasonry and even the embalmed head of Christ. Every year tens of thousands of visitors gaze in awe at the chapel's intricate stone carvings and wonder if some fabulous treasure lies buried beneath their feet.

The Da Vinci Code wove these extraordinary theories within a contemporary thriller and states that the Knights Templar built Rosslyn Chapel as a home for the mystery of the Grail. The truth is, however, stranger than the fiction.

Rosslyn Chapel was founded by Sir William St Clair, Earl...

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• By : Mark Oxbrow
• In : Destinations
• Issue : 16
• Page : 54
• Words : 1,512