Rosslyn Chapel, cared for by the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, is world famous and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. This fame increased dramatically as a result of the novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (2003) and the Hollywood film starring Tom Hanks (2006).
The chapel was founded in 1446, and the interior is a stunning masterpiece of stonemasonry, although without considerable conservation work completed fairly recently, the chapel’s fabric and interior would be in a poor condition. There are many theories why Rosslyn Chapel was constructed the way it was, which is too much to explore here except to mention they involve either real or fabricated connections with, for example, the Knights Templar, Scottish Freemasonry and the story of a treasure or secret being buried under the chapel, or in the vaults of nearby Roslin Castle. Incidentally, the difference between the names stems from the 19th century when Roslin village was renamed Rosslyn to appear more ‘olde worlde’.
In the chapel’s grounds stands the oldest living witness to the history of the last few centuries of the chapel – a female yew tree with an unknown planting date. Due to low level bushy growth an accurate girth measurement to allow a rough age estimate is not possible, but the yew’s size suggests it could be around 300 years old. If so, this could point to a historical connection.
Scotland’s Royal Company of Archers have been associated with Rosslyn Chapel for a long time and still feature in a high level role in Scottish and UK pageantry. When the monarch of the UK visits Scotland their official bodyguard is made up of a contingent from the Company. The connection between the yew and the longbow is well known and the yew is connected to the Company for that reason as they are archers. In 1703 the Company was given their Royal Charter by Queen Anne and that suggests the possibility this yew was planted then to mark the occasion.
There is another yew tree at Rosslyn Chapel, older than the one mentioned above, but is made of stone. As an information plaque in the chapel confirms, the most famous feature of the chapel, the ‘Apprentice Pillar’ symbolically represents the World Tree Yggdrasil in Norse cosmology.
The St Clairs who built the chapel are of dual Nordic heritage. Needless to say a depiction from ancient pagan religion in an ostensibly Christian chapel is unusual. However the information plaque is mistaken in referring to Yggdrasil as an ash tree. Reinterpretation and translation of Norse documents in recent decades confirm that Yggdrasil was in fact the yew tree. Hence what occupies such a prime place in Rosslyn Chapel is a yew tree carved in stone and the mystery is…why? Furthermore, what symbolic and esoteric meaning does this 15th legacy clearly have? Only the designer of the chapel and the St Clair family can really know. And we can note in the design of the Apprentice Pillar, and indeed its companions, that they all have fine fluted trunks with only the Apprentice Pillar having spirals around it. Needless to say, these characteristics can be seen for real upon yew trees.
Incidentally, following completion of restoration works a yew hedge has been planted around the chapel’s southern and eastern walls in recent years.