THE STORY
A combined visit to the Glen, the Chapel and the Castle
The Da Vinci Code movie - more reason to visit the Castle!
Getting there
Visiting the Castle
On to the Chapel
The two hotels in Roslin
Back to the Glen
More hiking routes - Dryden Tower and Rosewell
Da Vinci Code puzzle
< Back to Rosslyn Chapel story
< Back to Scotland page with links to other walks
A combined visit to the Glen, the Chapel and the Castle
Having visited Rosslyn Chapel, I was keen to explore Roslin Glen and find out how easy it would be to combine a Chapel visit and a countryside walk. The answer - very easy! You could have a stroll in Roslin Glen near the car park, wander up to see the view of the ruined Castle across the bridge, and reach the Chapel ready for a guided tour, all in an hour. After a couple of hours in the Chapel and the shop and tea room, you could be back at the car park in the Glen, all in the space of three and a half hours.
And after seeing the movie of The Da Vinci Code, there's even more reason for walking the short distance down to the Castle (see the coverage on the Rosslyn Chapel page and the reference below).
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Getting there
I had to leave it for a couple of weeks, but then the opportunity arose and I was able to spend an hour or so in Roslin Glen on a reasonably bright April day: much better, anyway, than the day we visited the Chapel, although soon after I left it started raining heavily!
It was just after midday when I drove out to Roslin from the Straiton junction, taking care not to finish up in a supermarket carpark. Heading through the village, I followed the road round at the crossroads, rather than driving straight on to the Chapel.
The road passed a line of houses and then turned down quite steeply to the left, into the Glen. Soon after crossing a bridge there was a drive on the left clearly signposted as the Roslin Glen car park.
I parked and put on a pair of trainers. There were a few other visitors taking a lunchtime break in the peaceful surroundings. I didn't have much sense of which direction to go in, but realised I needed to find the river.
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Visiting the Castle
Soon I reached the river bank and spotted the metal footbridge that I would have to cross to visit the Castle and then find the route up to the Chapel.
Just across the bridge the path rose up quickly to the left of a steep hillside. I noticed a couple of old trees on the left near the river bank which had been hollowed out - probably by kids using fire, I thought. In the hillside to the right, there was a rocky crevice which appeared to be man-made. Perhaps it was an ancient escape route from the Castle?
Climbing up the broad track I noticed the scent of wild garlic in the air, and realised that the masses of white flowers on either side must be garlic plants. Flashing into my mind was a recollection that the last time I had noticed such a spread of wild garlic was 30 years ago when walking between Grasmere and Rydal Water in the Lake District.
The track finished with steps up to a T-junction. Before going up, I wondered whether to turn right under the high arch of the bridge which linked the castle hill to the main slope. It didn't look like a regular route, so I continued up the steps and turned right at the top. This led round and across the bridge. It only had a low parapet, with a long drop on the other side!
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Clearly there wasn't much left of Rosslyn Castle although enough to provide a good location for filming "The Da Vinci Code" - watching it, you will think of Tom Hanks sitting on the low parapet of the bridge talking to Audrey Tautou, who could easily have pushed him over!. You can also imagine this quiet scene taken over by camera crews and the rest of the paraphernalia of Holywood.
However, I hadn't had the opportunity to see the movie before I visited the Castle, or what remains of it. The most prominent feature was a narrow column of ruined stonework, wider at the top, which looked like it might topple over at any time. There was a bit more wall next to it, and across to the right a longer stretch of high wall with arched recesses at the bottom. In between, a gravel area provided parking for a couple of cars, and behind a hedge was an old manor house. I wondered if this was open to visitors, but soon spotted the "Private" sign where the path passed through the gate in the hedge.
So I explored all the paths around the castle hill, seeing the outside of the walls and looking across the high hedge at the far side to get a photo of the manor house. There were steep paths down from here, but I preferred the route back across the bridge. The remaining castle walls had been patched up at low cost, with red bricks, and I couldn't see any interpretive panels.
However, according to this Rampant Scotland website, Rosslyn Castle as a 14th century round keep extended in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the stronghold of the St Clairs who built the Chapel. The Castle was demolished in a seige by General Monck on behalf of Cromwell in the Civil War in 1650, but the manor house bit is actually a restored part of the Castle and can be rented through the Landmark Trust. Fascinating.
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On to the Chapel
I edged along the narrow trail around the outside of the castle walls and back over the bridge, then continued up the wide track past the steps I had climbed earlier. To the left, there were views through the trees across the Glen to the countryside and a few houses beyond. There was a stone bench on the right of the track which looked as though it had been there for a long time. Then a wall, and then a gate through a fence onto a grassy hillside. I climbed up there and found myself looked at the back of the Chapel with it's metal canopy. Looking in the other direction I could see over the trees now, to Roslin Village and the Pentland Hills in the distance (see photo). A high fence and wall protected the immediate surroundings of the Chapel, but I was able to go round to the right, past some sheds, to the end of the road which led along the front of the Chapel. A coach had drawn up with the latest group of visitors. To the right, next to the overflow carpark, I saw once again the amusing sign for the Da Vinci Horse Manure 50p per bag.
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The two hotels in Roslin
I continued on past the former Rosslyn Inn and on along the access road to the village itself. It was only a couple of hundred metres, and I was soon able to compare the facades of the two hotels facing each other across the street at the crossroads (see the photos). A noticeboard standing across the road from the Roslin Glen Hotel provided more information about the locality and the walks that were available.
Back to the Glen
Then I headed back towards the Chapel, turning down the lane to the right at the corner of the former Rosslyn Inn. Soon there was a footpath leading straight ahead, but the main track to the Glen turned to the left past the churchyard, and then I was back at the gate which I had taken up onto the grassy hilltop earlier.
I continued down the track and turned right down the steps towards the footbridge, hurrying. As I crossed the footbridge and went down the steps on the far side, I slipped on the metal and skidded down 2 or 3 steps, trying to catch a hold on the handrail. My right arm was badly bruised, but otherwise I was fine. A useful reminder to take care on metal steps!
It had been mostly cloudy so far, but now the sun was starting to break through the clouds. I dashed around exploring the various paths, and enjoying seeing the stands of young trees.
However I didn't find the route leading further down the Glen - I had seen it from the parapet of the bridge to the Castle, but it wasn't clear from the river bank. There had been a sign on the far side of the bridge, below the Castle, indicating that the path on that side of the river was closed. On this (car park) side, there didn't seem to be a way through - it looked like private land, and the main Roslin Glen track bent round past it and back up to the public road.
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Checking another website set up by a chap called Berend Meijer covering the walk in more detail, it confirms that I could have reached the path down the Glen by walking under the Castle bridge. This would have avoided trying to skirt around the steep outer slope of the castle hill on the river bank, which looked pretty slippy. This website provides a good description of the walk, roughly the same route as that described in the Explore Midlothian booklet.
So I headed back to the car (I had run out of time anyway) around a wide grassy area that would be great for kids to run around on and enjoy a game of football. In fact, some older lads were enjoying a game of frisbee as I reached the car. I'll need to go back again to see more of the Glen. This visit was sufficient to see how easy it is to get there, and to walk between the Glen, the Castle and the Chapel. The full circuit described in the Explore Midlothian booklet is 7.9 km (5 miles), taking about 3 hours at an easy pace.
More hiking routes
According to the booklet there are also a 5.8 km (3.5 miles) variation (missing out the Glen) taking in Dryden Tower north of Roslin Village, and a 9.1 km (6 miles) circuit from Roslin Glen to Rosewell Village (to the east) and back again. So if you planned it properly you could enjoy a good day's walking starting in the Glen, enjoying a lunch break at one of the hotels, and visiting the Chapel as well.
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Da Vinci Code Puzzle
Now, after adding the bits of text and changes to the captions to cover the Da Vinci Code movie, I thought of a little puzzle for afficionados of the book. When you see the movie, you may notice some differences from the content of the book. Thinking about it, I realised there are FOUR confrontational situations that have been included in the film, that are not in the book. Can you identify at least three of them?
And can you remember which confrontation that IS in the book has been missed out in the film?
If so, e-mail stories@walkingstories.com . I'm not offering any big prizes, but at least I'll know that someone's been reading my ramblings!
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