St Giles, Edinburgh - Interior »
From a distance this appeared to be yet another Green Man but when we got the photographs back and examined the image there seems there is nothing to this. What we can see is a man with hands on each knee and very reminiscent of some of the poses held by carvings of angels within Rosslyn Chapel. To the man’s left there is another individual who appears to be playing the bagpipes and is again similar to carvings of bagpipers in Rosslyn Chapel. To the man’s right is a large bird. Both bird and piper may be connected (the bird seems to be on a leash) to what appears to be two individuals standing behind the central figure. A preliminary interpretation is that this shows a man dancing with the piper playing a tune and the bird indicates a cock fight.
We have asked the Rosslyn Templar who procured this image to try to obtain a better one in order that a more detailed examination might be made.
