Rosslyn Chapel, Melrose Abbey, and Part of Hadrian’s Wall

In addition to Rabbie’s, the other small group tour company out of Edinburgh that I really liked was the Heart of Scotland. They left from the same location as Rabbie’s and had a day trip to Rosslyn Chapel, Melrose Abbey and the portion of Hadrian’s Wall known as Housesteads Fort. So I hopped on the tour coach with about 10 other people this time and we headed for the village of Roslin.

I don’t know why the spelling of the chapel name is different from the spelling of the village name. The castle is also spelled like the village even though it belongs to the same family as the chapel. That family is named Sinclair or St Clare. St Clare was the original name of the Norman French family. They arrived in Scotland in the 11^th century, building a castle at Roslin in the early 14^th century. They got around, having spent quite a bit of time up in Caithness in northern Scotland and on Orkney – a group of islands north of mainland Scotland. I saw loads of Sinclair castles up in Caithness on a previous trip.

The castle at Roslin was heavily damaged during the Rough Wooing Wars between Scotland and England during the time of Henry VIII. The East Range of the castle was rebuilt in the 16^th century and has been steadily inhabited ever since. It only looks like a house from up above, but it is located on sheer cliffs above the River Esk and has three more levels under the two that can be readily seen. These lower levels were built directly into the rock upon which the castle sits.

My previous visit to Rosslyn Chapel was during a very heavy rainstorm. So the small group of us that went there on the city bus from Edinburgh didn’t go down the rather steep dirt trail from the chapel to the castle. It was pretty much a rushing stream of water instead of a path. I was really glad to be back at the chapel so I could see the castle.

Another reason I was happy to be back was that the chapel had been completely encased in scaffolding at the time of the 2009 visit. For the 2016 visit, the repairs had been made, the scaffolding was off, and the entire building could be seen. It was nearly as exquisite outside as inside. They don’t allow photos inside. They sell them in the gift shop. I had hoped that they would allow interior photography this time, but they didn’t.

What wasn’t the least bit disappointing was the talk given inside by a very knowledgeable guide with a great sense of humor. The building is not all that large, so a fairly central seat enables the listener to gaze around in awe and see everything the guide talks about. After they are done, there is plenty of time to walk around and take a closer look. You know where everything is after listening to the guide.

After closer looks at many items upstairs and down, I ended up near the guide and we had a very interesting conversation about the town, the castle, the chapel, and The DaVinci Code film. She had been there during the filming and had several anecdotes.

The tour set off for the town of Melrose closer to the border with England. We had a good amount of free time to have lunch and explore both the town and the abbey. I had lunch at a sandwich shop connected to a chocolate shop that made its own chocolate. Needless to say I bought some of their chocolate both for myself and for small gifts for various people back home. Scottish chocolate is quite good. It also goes well with Scotch Whiskey.

Between the sandwich shop and the abbey was Priorwood Garden. I had some time before the abbey was open to tourists, so I explored the garden. It was a very lovely, large garden and I wandered around it for a while.

Then I headed over to Melrose Abbey. The abbey had been founded in 1136 by King David I of Scotland. King Richard II of England had the abbey burned in the 14^th century. Then it was badly damaged by King Henry VIII of England during the Rough Wooing. But what remains is still very impressive and quite large.

Back when the movie Braveheart was made, it was full of historical inaccuracies. I could write an entire post on just that. But the one in particular that pertains to this trip is that William Wallace was never nicknamed ‘Braveheart’. That was Robert the Bruce, who became king of Scotland (he also didn’t betray Wallace; that was John de Menteith).

After death, Robert the Bruce was mostly buried at Dunfermline. But his heart was removed, placed in a silver casket, and taken on a crusade in Spain by his friend Sir James Douglas. Sir James and most of the rest of the contingency were killed. The silver casket was brought back to Scotland along with the Scots and the casket with the actual Braveheart’s heart was buried at Melrose Abbey. I took a photo of the heart’s location, which I have included here.

From Melrose, we headed down to the border and crossed into England on our way to the portion of Hadrian’s Wall called Housesteads Fort. This was a Roman fort along the wall and up a steep hill.

I have always enjoyed the idea of the wall. In 122 AD, the Romans, after managing to conquer much of England, headed north, encountered the Picts (Scotland as such didn’t exist yet; the people known as the Scots didn’t arrive in the area until a few hundred years later), decided that they just didn’t want to deal with them at all and built a wall to contain them instead. The official reason for the wall was to “separate the Romans from the barbarians.”

For the most part, the wall was about 10 feet wide and 16 to 20 feet in height. Despite hundreds of years of people taking stones from the wall to build their own walls or other buildings (such as Carlisle Castle), there is still a pretty substantial amount of wall standing. The various forts, milecastles (small forts placed every mile along the wall) and turrets were dismantled more than the wall itself.

Because the actual name of the fort isn’t known (there are several possibilities, one of which is Vercovicium), Housesteads Fort (built in 124 AD) was named after the farm on which it stood for several hundred years after the Romans left (about 409 AD). The fort has been the property of the National Trust since 1930, though sheep still graze on the land between the visitor’s center and the fort.

In addition to the Roman baths and the other usual Roman buildings that can be seen at such sites across Britain, this particular fort has the best preserved stone latrine found in any Roman excavations in Great Britain. Just outside the fort itself is a building called ‘the murder house’ as two skeletons were found beneath a newly laid floor when excavated.

Our guide mentioned the films The Centurion and The Eagle, which were both loosely based on the legend of the disappearance of the Roman Ninth Legion into Caledonia (the name the Romans gave to the land north of the wall). However there isn’t any actual historical evidence that the Ninth was ever involved with anything having to do with Caledonia, so nobody is certain what really happened to them. They were, however, in Britain from about 43 AD until the record runs dry. They were involved with Boudica’s rebellion in 61 AD and were reportedly trounced by her forces at what is now Colchester.

On our way back to Edinburgh, we made a stop for photos at Jedburgh Abbey – another border abbey founded by King David I of Scotland. This one, though damaged during the Rough Wooing, made it through until the Scottish Reformation. As it is, there is a fair amount of it still standing and it is quite beautiful.

Next time –taking a Hop On Hop Off tour around Edinburgh.

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