… last night at something silly, I made it as far as Berwick-on-Tweed where I spent the night.
There’s a car pool place on the edge of town with a couple of discreet corners ideal for having a kip, and ideal for having a few other things too by the looks of it. Next morning, I even found a pair of tights on the ground.
We’ve been here before so we don’t have a photo but it’s a nice clean place with a washroom so there’s everything that you need to hand.
Once I’d organised myself properly I crossed the border into Scotland and headed off down the A1 in the direction of Edinburgh. On the by-pass, I kept my eyes peeled and eventually found the road that I needed.
Where I’ve come to is Rosslyn Chapel, which is situated in the village of … errr … Roslin, south of Edinburgh. The village of Rosslyn is somewhere else – New Zealand or the USA or somewhere.
Everyone will know the story behind Rosslyn Chapel because you’ve all read the Da Vinci Code and/or seen the film, and this is where the action takes place
But it’s not (necessarily) that which has brought me here.
As I said yesterday, something that cropped up in Canada last October was what had brought me here.
There have long been claims that Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, Baron of Roslin and ancestor of the current owner of the Chapel, had visited North America 100 years before Columbus.
Of course, this is quite possible.
- He held his title of Earl of Orkney in allegiance to King Haakon VI of Norway, gifted on 2 August 1379.
- He is known to have been in Norway on many occasions
- Norway certainly knew of the existence of the old Norse colonies in Greenland
- In 1347 a boat loaded with timber from “Markland” (almost certainly the North American coast) made an error of navigation and fetched up in Iceland rather than Greenland. This would have inevitably become known to the Norwegians (Iceland was a Norwegian possession at the time)
- Sinclair was said to be an intrepid seaman known for his curiosity
And from there we move into the realm of speculation.
Just because something is quite possible, that is far from saying that it is probable, or even likely.
Many people do however make such a claim and when we were in Nova Scotia last October we came across his alleged landing site. It’s no part of my story to pass any opinion on this. I’m having no part in any argument.
But the fervent supporters of the Sinclair North American landings pointed out that Rosslyn Chapel contains many carvings that can only be plants found only in North America and unknown in Europe until the 16th Century.
They say that seeing as how the Chapel was built in 1456 (which, incidentally is long after Sinclair’s death), it could only be because Sinclair had seen them on his travels.
Why I had come here was to see the carvings and persuade the authorities to allow me to photograph them – permission is not often given.
But I nearly didn’t go in at all now. There have been considerable complaints about the Chapel “cashing in” on the popularity of the Da Vinci Code and when they told me how much the admission would be, I nearly passed out on the spot.
Seeing me standing there open-mouthed, the woman on the cash desk reassured me “but it’s half-price for senior citizens”.
I wasn’t sure whether to thump her or to storm out in disgust but the parsimonist inside me got the better of my emotions. But I’m afraid my ego has touched rock-bottom now and I’m inconsolable.
It’s no wonder that the Chapel is undergoing repair. With the money that they must be raking in, they could cover the place in gold plate.
However, it’s an ill-wind that doesn’t blow anyone any good. I spent quite some time chatting to a tour guide about the Templars and Sinclair and all of this, and the upshot was that I was invited into the office to see the Director.
I imagine that people claiming to be serious visitors have to “pass the test” – something that happened to me in the USA in 1999 when I ended up sitting behind the controls in the cockpit of Lindbergh’s The Spirit of St Louis – or, at least, the famous “Warner Brothers” replica B159.
I was permitted to take a couple of photographs “for private study” and not for publication so unfortunately you can’t see them, and I was allowed to peruse the private papers of the Chapel.
Furthermore, the curator will photocopy all of those that I found interesting and e-mail them to me, and so I certainly had my money’s worth there.
And as for the photos?
- The Director of the museum told me that people overlook the fact that the interior of the chapel was redesigned in the 1860s and its possible that the designs could date from then. The original plans for the Chapel have never been discovered.
- Others have said that the designs are imply abstract forms
- And me? Well, I’ve seen more convincing and realistic maize and pineapple carvings elsewhere
And don’t forget. Sinclair had been to Norway – and doubtless other parts of the Norwegian Empire too. Greenland was part of the Norwegian Empire. Travellers from Greenland had been to both North America and Iceland – which was part of the Norwegian Empire.
No-one – apart from Yours Truly of course – has ever mentioned the possibility that what Sinclair might have seen had been brought back from North America by a Greenlander and Sinclair had seen it elsewhere.
But before we leave the site, let me first remind you of my theory about churches and castles.
Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I’ve drawn your attention … "on many occasions" – ed … to the superb “defensive” site of many churches, such as this one here.
I’ve said … "at great length" – ed … that in my opinion, these sites started out as fortress sites with a small chapel inside the fortress.
As the need for fortresses declined and as the population in the vicinity grew in number, the size of the fortress would decline and the church would become more important
Rosslyn Chapel is actually built on the site of what was formerly a fortified site
And as for the myths and legends? Make up your own mind. There’s been enough nonsense written about this place without me adding to it.
From Roslin I drove all the way back to Hexham to see how Dave was doing with his rewrite of the text for the pages of his website.
Regular readers of this rubbish will recall my magnum opus about Riccarton Junction.
One thing that I was keen to do was to see the junction where the line for Hawick left the Newcastle-Carlisle line and the remains of the famous bridge over the Tyne.
That’s not too far from Hexham as it happens, and a lovely walk along the banks of the Tyne so with Dave acting as guide and navigator, off we set.
It didn’t take too long to track it down, but unfortunately, all traces of the railway junction have long-been obliterated.
That’s hardly a surprise since the line was closed in 1958.
After many vicissitudes we were eventually able to scramble up onto one of the piers where I was able to take several photos of the remains of the piers.
It wasn’t easy to see how they had been built, seeing as they were all swathed in sheaves of debris brought down by the river in spate.
You can imagine the force of the water that can roar down here when you see all of this
As you might (or might not) know, the death knell for the railway sounded on 6th August 1948, when this part of the country was hit by a devastating storm and torrential rain that lasted for 6 days.
A 7-foot tidal wave of water swept down the River Whiteadder, the River Tweed was recorded as being 17 feet above its usual water level
Much of the railway infrastructure was badly damaged – the East Coast main line between London and Ednburgh was so badly damaged that it took 11 weeks before it could reopen.
The Tyne did not escape and the Border Counties Bridge – which was never a particularly stable bridge, was badly damaged. Engineers affected a temporary repair but this really WAS only temporary and didn’t last too long.
And with the volume of traffic on the railway, which was never substantial, it was decided that it was not cost-effective to rebuild it.
Passenger services were withdrawn in 1956 but some kind of desultory freight service struggled on for a couple of years.
One thing that I noticed lying scattered around the site were all kinds of remains of cast iron.
Many railway bridges of this period were built out of cast-iron and we’ve seen plenty of remains on our travels.
All of this looks to me very much like what I would expect to see had I been looking for the remains of cast-iron bridge columns.And when I find the time, I’ll tell you how they were assembled
The rails were removed, the junction was erased, and the bridge was demolished.
And there are still several lumps of masonry lying around that could well have come from the bridge.
This looks pretty much like railway-bridge brickwork to me
Back at Dave’s house we started to proof-read Dave’s text that he had now finished but one thing led to another and with bouncing a few ideas around we ended up totally rewriting it.
Not that I am complaining by any means, but it was 05:30 and broad daylight when I finally left there.
Another task all done and dusted.
