What To Do When In Edinburgh

There is plenty to do in Edinburgh city. However, if you want to get away from the large crowds and explore other attractions outside the city, you will not be left twiddling your thumb and scratching your head. Scotland as a whole is full of attractions. The land itself with its countless of lochs, hills and mountains will keep you fascinated wherever you go.

One place most guidebooks and tour operators do recommend you try to explore if you have the time is Rosslyn Chapel. It was featured in the best seller book and film, The da Vinci Code. It was also shown in The Hiram Key. The building is world famous for its countless of exquisite carvings as well as the aura of mystery and supernatural activity that surrounds it.

There is enough about the building and the site where it is build which will captivate you for hours. The chapel is associated with stories to do with Freemasonry, The Knights Templar, The Holy Grail, Solomon, Babylon and even Gypsies.

The real name of the chapel is the Collegiate Chapel of St Mathew. It was founded on a hill above Roslin Glen as a Roman Catholic collegiate church in the middle of the fifteenth century. The money used to build it was from William Sinclair, the 1st Earl of Caithness. He was a descendant, through the Sinclair family, of the Norman Knights from the commune of Saint-Clair-sur-Eptein from Northern France. It thus explains where some of the stories about the chapel, whether true or not, arise from.

The college was built in honour and in celebration of the Divine Office. It was also built to celebrate the Holy Mass for all those departed, including his ancestors from the Sinclair family. A five minute walk from the chapel and you will find yourself in front of the ruin of the castle. From the bridge you get to see the setting for the penultimate scene in the Divinci Code movie. A good place to stay before you travel to the Chapel is Murrayfield Hotel. Alternatively want to spend most of your time travelling in and out of the city every few days a Princes Street Hotels Edinburgh have great deals throughout the year.