Revamp starts at historic chapel
PRAISE BE: The beautiful interior of Rosslyn. Picture: JON SAVAGE
By Fiona MacGregor
WORK is under way on a £4 million scheme to preserve historic Rosslyn Chapel.
Six years after a canopy was erected to protect the 15th century building, which has links with the ancient Knights Templar order and tales of the Holy Grail, experts are set to record the position of every stone in the intricately carved building before preservation work begins.
The Midlothian chapel, which has suffered water damage, will undergo essential repairs to its roof, windows and stonework.
Rainwater disposal features will also be installed to eventually allow its protective canopy to be dismantled.
The upgrades come as a best-selling book featuring the site has resulted in "unprecedented" increases in visitor numbers.
Stuart Beattie, project manager of the Rosslyn Trust, said the improvements were expected to be completed by 2008.
He added: "In 1998 we erected a canopy to arrest any further deterioration of the building’s stonework. We have also undertaken works to secure the ground that slopes away to Roslin Glen and other work improving electrical services, creating a visitor centre and putting car parking across the road.
"We have now created a conservation plan. This is a dynamic document that flags up what we need to do in the future.
"By late summer we expect to start work on making a full stone-by-stone record of the chapel as it stands at the minute.
"We also need to make sure the foundations of the chapel are secure so we will be looking at what’s underneath the chapel."
Glasgow-based firm Page and Park architects has been appointed to take the scheme forward. But despite the building’s fascinating history, Mr Beattie said he did not expect the excavations to turn up any archeological treasures.
Mr Beattie added the trust was confident of securing grant aid from Historic Scotland and the Heritage Lottery fund for the project, and was seeking to appoint a fundraising co-ordinator.
A spokeswoman for Historic Scotland said: "Rosslyn Chapel is a very important building. We’ve been working with conservation, repair and maintenance of the building for some time and have been grant aiding the chapel and working closely with trustees."
Meanwhile, backers said the chapel had seen a record number of visitors this year after it featured in a new best-selling novel by American author Dan Brown.
The Da Vinci Code, which has clocked up nearly 500,000 paperback sales in the UK in just over a month, has shifted more than seven million copies in the US. It is now set to be made into a film starring Harrison Ford.
Mr Beattie said visitor numbers were up 18 per cent in January, 22 per cent in February, 17 per cent in March. He added: "Whether we can attribute that entirely to The Da Vinci Code is hard to know, but I think it would be churlish of me to say it hasn’t had an effect."
EEN
29th April 2004
Any one who has other news items about Rosslyn Chapel, especially any printed outwith Scotland the Rosslyn Templars would be pleased to receive them. Item relating to Rosslyn Chapel need not be newspaper articles but can come from magazines and other periodicals.