The majority of visitors who head off to Roslin do so to visit the world-famous Rosslyn Chapel. Much as I love the chapel, I tend to head there to bathe in the woodlands of Roslin Glen and usually head off into them by the ruins of Rosslyn Castle. So, walking down a path of orange and brown autumn leaves that crunched underfoot, I made my way to the high bridge leading into the ruins. The view over Roslin Glen from this bridge is spectacular and looking down from the low walls I always get a frisson of fear at the drop down below. It reminds me of when I was a small child and being taken to the theatre and sitting up high in the gods with the seats in a steep slant beneath me. I always had that fear that I would tumble over the seats and over the balcony and down, down, down into the stalls beneath. It is almost a comfortable fear where you know it won’t happen, but a little voice at the back of your brain tells you that it might.
Walking over the bridge and into the castle proper, there are some broken walls and the remains of a tower. Then, behind a hedge is a small house built into the remains of part of the castle. It is available for rent as a tourist cottage, and I’ve always quite fancied spending a few nights there with friends, soaking up the atmosphere and telling ghost stories.
Making my way to a doorway in one of the walls I came out on a small path that leads around the ruins and to the back of the tower. After having a look around there, I made my way back through the castle ruins and down some steps that led into the glen. There, walking under the huge arch of the bridge I cut round to a part of the castle built into the cliffs of the hill upon which it stands. It is the best-preserved part of the building and work was carried out on it recently to repair it and enlarge the house above.
Rosslyn Castle was built in the early 14th Century and was the seat of the St Clairs, formerly the Princes and Earls of Orkney. Legend has it that in 1302, after fighting in various battles, Sir William St Clair (or Sinclair) returned home to a castle that stood near to where Rosslyn castle stands now. In his company was an English prisoner of high standing who Sir William hoped to ransom back to his family in England for a substantial sum of money. However, the two men soon found they enjoyed each other’s company and became firm friends. The captive man, who it would appear had some knowledge in castle building and defensive strategy, advised Sir William that his castle was not strong enough to hold off an attack and should be built on some steep rocks that stood nearby. Together they drew up plans and Sir William then had the castle built on the rocks where it now stands. There are no records of what happened to Sir William’s prisoner friend, but I like to think that he was set free and accompanied back to the border where he rode off back to his family. I’m sure that he and Willie carried on their friendship as pen pals with Willie sending him an occasional sketch to show the castle as it was built.
In the mid-15th Century, the castle was occupied by the founder of Rosslyn Chapel, another Sir William Sinclair. At this time, it was said to be luxurious and a ‘palace’ where Sir William ‘kept a great court, and was royally served at his own table in vessels of gold and silver’ with the ‘halls and other apartments richly adorned with embroidered hangings.’
%20Crade%20of%20the%20St.%20Clair%20Lineage.jpg "Rosslyn Castle (Restored) Cradle of the St. Clair Lineage")
The castle also contained a scriptorium, a library of manuscripts, and it is said that when in 1542 a fire broke out, the Lord of Roslin sent his Chaplain into the burning building to save the precious documents. The Chaplain managed to lower them out of a window in a basket with the flames licking at his backside, and only just managed to escape from the inferno himself.
This was not the only time that fire damaged the building, as in 1544 during the ‘Rough Wooing’ much of the castle was set ablaze by English troops under the orders of the Earl of Hertford. It was later rebuilt with a five-storey range built into the side of the rock on which it stood. And for a while all was relatively peaceful at the castle, that was until 1650 when Cromwell’s army, led by General Monk laid siege to it. They pounded it with artillery and ‘the destruction of the Castle was all but complete. Every part of it was battered down, except the "Modern House" which still stands. After its surrender, the Castle was spoiled of its valuables; everything was carried off that was worth removing…’ Then, a few decades later in 1688 an anti-Catholic mob attacked the nearby chapel and then made their way to the castle. There, they destroyed any books, furniture, and clothing that they thought looked ‘Popish and idolatrous.’ After this the castle was pretty much left alone, with the small house being the only part that remained inhabited.
At its height, the castle must have been quite stunning with its various towers and ranges of buildings. These were all arranged around a courtyard with a high bridge leading over to the cliff on which it sits. Even now it makes spectacular ruin. A ruin that has inspired poets from Burns to Byron –
Oh, Roslin! time, war, flood, and fire,
Have made your glories star by star expire.
Chaos of ruins! who shall trace the void,
O ‘er the dim fragments cast a lunar light,
And say, ‘here was or is,’ where all is doubly night?
Alas! thy lofty castle! and alas
Thy trebly hundred triumphs! and the day
When Sinclair made the dagger’s edge surpass
The conqueror‘s sword, in bearing fame away. _Byron
Like any good, ruined castle, Rosslyn has a ghost story or two connected to it. Every so often, in the dark of the night, there is said to be the howl of a ghostly hound as it mourns for its long dead master. The story goes that during a battle nearby there was an English knight who by his side had a huge and vicious black hound. As he fought against the Scottish troops his dog bit and mauled all those who attacked him. The knight was eventually struck down and killed and the dog was so enraged by the death of its master that it tore chunks of flesh from the Scottish soldier who had slain him. Friends of the unfortunate man, who was getting seriously mauled by the dog, had to step in and kill it to get it off him. That night the ghost of the dog appeared in the castle howling and snarling, terrifying all who saw it. It made its way through the rooms and hallways of the castle until it found the man who had slain its master. Cornering him it snarled and lunged at the poor man, terrifying the wits out of him until, at daybreak, it disappeared. Friends of the man found him in a dreadful state, and he was taken to bed. There he lay in a fever throughout the day and just as darkness approached the howl of the hound was heard once more. At that the man died. Since then, the ghostly hound has never reappeared, but its howl can still be occasionally heard.
There is also said to be another ghost, that of a knight in black armour and on horseback, who sometimes appears in Roslin Glen by the castle and at others on the bridge leading into it. Who he was, no-one knows, though some say he may have been one of the English knights slain at the Battle of Roslin.
And if that isn’t enough, there is also a legend of there being hidden treasure within the castle ruins. Seemingly, Lord Darnley, the rather pathetic husband of Mary Queen of Scots, hid a small fortune of gold and jewels somewhere within the castle before he met his explosive end. The legend then gets rather bizarre, as even though Darnley was a bit of a cad and all-round bad egg, there is apparently an angel of such ‘dazzling purity’ guarding the treasure that ‘no mortal eye could look upon her and live.’ Therefore, only someone who is blind can find the hidden fortune. There are some gigantic flaws in this tale though, as supposedly the angel has been seen to leave the castle and make her way to the chapel where she kneels by the altar and weeps. So, if you’re fully sighted and want to look for the treasure just wait until she heads up to the chapel, and also why are all the those who saw her make her way to the chapel not dead? Hmmmm…
On my visit I didn’t see any ghosts or angels, though there was someone in the glen below the castle who was dressed up as a blue dragon. Why, I’m not sure, but they had a photographer and an entourage of young women around them, so they were maybe an influencer or a cult leader or something like that.
Before leaving Rosslyn Castle for a walk through the glen, I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me in a gap in the crumbling cement of the tower.
The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –
Latitude 55.852806
Longitude -3.160155
What3words: breezy.cube.overlooks
I used the following sources for information on Rosslyn Castle –
The Antiquarian Itinerary Comprising Specimens of Architecture, Monastic, Castellated, and Domestic; With Other Vestiges Of Antiquity In Great Britain. Accompanied With Descriptions, Vol II.
1816
Historical Tales of Roslin Castle, from the Invasion of Edward I of England, to the Death of Mary Queen of Scotland
James Jackson
1837
Ruined Castles of Midlothian
Their Position; Their Families; Their Ruins; And Their History
John Dickson
1894
The Saint-Clairs of the Isles; being a history of the sea-kings of Orkney and their Scottish successors of the surname of Sinclair.
Roland Wiilliam Saint-Clair
1898
