The Rosslyn estate (‘Roslin’ is the spelling used for its village) has been held by the St. Clairs, an ancient Scottish family, since the early fourteenth century. Rosslyn has long been famous for its picturesque valley, enhanced by the St. Clairs with two extraordinary buildings – an ancient castle and the breathtakingly beautiful Rosslyn Chapel. The chapel represents the pinnacle of the fifteenth-century stonemason’s craft, embellished on every surface with imagery that made it a place of mysticism and pilgrimage through centuries of dereliction. The present Earl and Countess of Rosslyn have been instrumental in the chapel’s ongoing restoration (it is as popular a tourist attraction today as it has ever been). To support their efforts to keep this ancient inheritance together, we let on their behalf Rosslyn Castle and the former inn beside Rosslyn Chapel.

Many famous travellers have found rest at Collegehill House, former inn and de facto gatehouse to Rosslyn Chapel, a Renaissance jewel lying just over the garden wall and inspiration for many an artist and also the occasional novelist. Boswell and Dr Johnson, Robbie Burns and Francis Grose, J.M.W. Turner and the Wordsworths – even Queen Victoria found hospitality here. Ben Jonson visited the chapel on foot in 1618, to find William Drummond of Hawthornden resting under a tree: ‘Welcome, welcome, ye royal Ben,’ said Drummond, to which Jonson replied with quicker wit than style, ‘Thank ye, thank ye, Hawthornden.’

Built in the eighteenth century, Roslin became a popular destination for amateur lady painters on day trips from Edinburgh (and Rosslyn Chapel is once again a magnet for visitors today). On the first floor of the house is a grand drawing-room; it is easy enough to conjure up all these many and varied visitors to Roslin as you loll in your armchair with one of the finest expositions of the mason’s craft framed in your window.

View our history sheet for this Landmark.

 

Sleeps: 6