Rosslyn Chapel

Rosslyn Chapel tickets: which one to buy

There is one ticket, bought online for a timed slot, and it includes the short talks that the guides give in the chapel every half hour through the day. Those talks are the best thing about a visit and are included, so there is no reason to pay more for a private guide inside. The chapel is small, the numbers are capped and summer slots sell out days ahead, which makes booking essential rather than advisable.

Getting there from Edinburgh takes about forty minutes: the Lothian bus 37 runs from the city centre to Roslin village for the price of a normal fare, and a taxi costs many times that. Organised tours from Edinburgh usually pair Rosslyn with Melrose Abbey, the Scottish Borders or a distillery, and they cost several times the entry fee because of the transport. If you drive, the car park is free and the village has a couple of pubs. Allow at least an hour inside; most people stay longer than they expect.

Visiting Rosslyn Chapel: what to see

William Sinclair began the chapel in 1456 as a collegiate church and it was never finished; what stands is the choir of a much larger building that was abandoned after his death. Inside, almost every surface is carved. Foliage runs across the vaults, angels play medieval instruments along the arches, and more than a hundred green men peer out of the leaves, more than in any other building in Britain.

The Apprentice Pillar in the south-east corner is the famous one, a twisted column wrapped in four strands of vine, with the legend that the master mason killed the apprentice who carved it in his absence out of jealousy. Carvings that look like maize and aloe have fed speculation about pre-Columbian voyages, and the chapel's supposed links to the Templars and the Grail made it a pilgrimage site after The Da Vinci Code; historians give none of it credit, and the guides handle the question patiently. The crypt below is bare and quiet.

Rosslyn Chapel opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily except Christmas and a few winter days, from mid-morning to late afternoon, with the last entry an hour before closing and shorter hours from October to March. It is an Episcopal church with services on Sunday mornings, when visiting starts later. Book the first slot of the day in summer if you want to hear a talk without a crowd around you. The building is stone and unheated and feels cold even in July;

the roof carries a protective canopy that was removed in 2010 after years of drying out the walls. Photography is allowed without flash, though the low light defeats most phones. The visitor centre has a good cafe and a viewing terrace over Roslin Glen, where a path leads down to the ruined castle, worth an extra hour if the weather holds. Nothing else in the village takes time, so the chapel can be a half day from Edinburgh.