Ghosts · Midlothian

The Fire at Roslin Chapel

Roslin Chapel (Rosslyn Chapel), Roslin, seven miles south of Edinburgh

Family-friendly

Seven miles south of Edinburgh stands the chapel of Roslin. It was founded in 1446 by William St Clair, Prince of Orkney, who had so many titles that, as one old writer said, they would weary a Spaniard. The chapel is small, but wonderfully rich in carved stonework.

Beneath its floor lies the vault of the St Clairs. For centuries the barons of Roslin were laid there without any coffin, each one dressed in his own armour. A family history that Walter Scott quoted tells how, when the vault was opened for a funeral, one old baron lay on a flat stone in his armour, with a red velvet cap on his head, looking whole until they touched him, when he fell into dust.

And the chapel keeps watch over its family. Whenever one of the founder's descendants is about to die, people said, Roslin Chapel seems to be on fire. The whole building seems to glow red, within and without, from its pillars to its pinnacles.

Walter Scott put the legend into a song in his poem <i>The Lay of the Last Minstrel</i>. It is the song of Rosabelle, a lady of the St Clairs who was drowned at sea. On the night she died, the chapel blazed:

O'er Roslin all that dreary nightA wondrous blaze was seen to gleam;'Twas broader than the watch-fire light,And redder than the bright moon-beam.Seemed all on fire that chapel proud,Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffin'd lie;Each baron, for a sable shroud,Sheathed in his iron panoply.Blazed battlement and pinnet high,Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair—So still they blaze when fate is nighThe lordly line of Hugh St. Clair.from Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)
There are twenty of Roslin's barons boldLie buried within that proud chapelle;Each one that holy vault doth hold—But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle!

No plate yet. We are still looking for an old picture of this place.

What people said

  • The Prentice's Pillar. One pillar in the chapel is wreathed from top to bottom in rich carved bands, quite unlike the plain columns around it. Tradition says it was carved by an apprentice, who was inspired.
  • Still burning. The last St Clair to be known simply as “Roslin” died in 1778, and the estates passed to the Erskines, Earls of Rosslyn. But Ingram says that in 1884 the old belief in the fire had still not died out.

Other tellings

  • The fullest telling is Walter Scott's poem of 1805, but Scott took the belief from the old tradition of the St Clairs. [TODO: earlier record of the burning chapel]
  • [TODO: the earliest telling of the apprentice and his master, and how it ends]

What the history says

Rosslyn Chapel was founded in 1446 and is still used as a place of worship today. Only the chancel of the great church that was planned was ever finished. Ingram says a mob damaged it about two hundred years before his time, and that General St Clair had it repaired.

Go and See

Where
Rosslyn Chapel, Chapel Loan, Roslin, Midlothian, about seven miles south of Edinburgh.
Access
Open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm, Sunday 12 noon to 5pm. Entry by ticket only: £12 full price, £10 reduced, under-17s free. Book online. No photography inside the chapel. Only assistance dogs are allowed anywhere on the site.
Allow
An hour or more for the chapel and its carvings.
Families
A gentle legend: a warning fire that harms no one. Children can hunt for the Green Men in the carvings.

Visiting details checked 25 October 2026 with Rosslyn Chapel, rosslynchapel.com. Always check before you travel.

55.8554° N, 3.1599° W · Open in OpenStreetMap

Make a day of it

From our sister sites

Acorn & InkPrint a day-out prep sheetGet children ready for a visit to a carved chapel full of hidden faces.Acorn & InkWrite your own legendStory planners to print. What warning would your family's house give?

Sources

  1. John H. Ingram, The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain (1884; illustrated edition 1897), “Roslin Chapel”, quoting a manuscript history of the St Clairs given by Walter Scott. Our main source. Internet Archive.
  2. Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), canto VI, the song of Rosabelle, as quoted by Ingram.
  3. Visiting: Rosslyn Chapel, rosslynchapel.com, checked 25 October 2026.

This is a legend, told as people told it. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.