Collegehill House

Roslin, near Edinburgh

Overview

Many famous travellers have found hospitality here when visiting Rosslyn Chapel, which stands just over the garden wall. 

  • Dogs AllowedDogs Allowed
  • Electric Car Charging PointElectric Car Charging Point
  • CotCot
  • Mobile signalMobile signal
  • Fire or StoveFire or Stove
  • Open SpaceOpen Space
  • Logs availableLogs available
  • Parking AvailableParking Available
  • BathBath
  • DishwasherDishwasher
  • MicrowaveMicrowave
  • ShowerShower
  • Washing MachineWashing Machine

Beds 2 Twin 1 Double

Sleeps
6
4 nights from
£488 equivalent to £20.33 per person, per night
An orange painted house with a green lawn and patches of white snowdrops

A long list of famous travellers

Since it was built, Collegehill House has always had a very close connection to its neighbouring property, Rosslyn Chapel. The Chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair and was incomplete when he died in 1484. The beauty of its setting and the mysterious symbolism of its ornate stonework have inspired, attracted and intrigued visitors and artists ever since. Collegehill House takes its name from the Chapel being established as a collegiate church and, from around 1660 to 1866, it was in use as The Old Rosslyn Inn, established for the accommodation of worshippers.

Set in the stone above the front door, Collegehill House’s datestone of 1660 is a reminder of its rich history. The property has welcomed illustrious travellers, including Robert Burns, James Boswell, a son of Queen Victoria and JMW Turner to name but a few, attracted by the medieval architecture of Rosslyn Chapel and the beauty of the nearby Roslin Glen and its then imposing Rosslyn Castle, also now a Landmark.

Inspiring views

Today, the house makes a perfect base for exploring Rosslyn Chapel, Glen and surrounding attractions of Midlothian. The Chapel has recently undergone an extensive programme of conservation and a state-of-the-art visitor centre tells the Chapel’s story – from its 15th century origins, through the Reformation to the Da Vinci Code and beyond. The large first floor sitting room in Collegehill House has views over the Chapel and from the garden you can study its elaborate stonework, sometimes even from a deckchair.

On the outskirts of Edinburgh – just 7 miles from the city centre - Collegehill House is ideal for exploring the many delights which Scotland’s historic capital city has to offer, all year round. There are very good public transport links between the village of Roslin and the city centre.

See all our Landmarks at Roslin

Floor Plan

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Map & local info

Collegehill House sits next door to Rosslyn Chapel at the top of the picturesque Roslin Glen, which has a web of footpaths down to the river. The Roslin Glen Walk is an excellent way to explore this area.

The city of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is just 7 miles away. The Castle, Zoo, National Museum of Scotland, Palace of Holyroodhouse and The Georgian House are just some of the fantastic array of attractions to keep you entertained in this vibrant city.

Portobello Beach, just outside Edinburgh, is a traditional seaside resort where you can stroll along the promenade, overlooking the sandy beach, or relax in the unique surroundings of the Turkish Baths

Discover local walks for dogs with our friends at Walkiees.co.uk, the dog walks community. For more information on things to do during your stay at Collegehill House, please see our Pinterest page.

Please Note: The Landmark Trust does not take any responsibility and makes no warranties, representations or undertakings about the content of any website accessed by hypertext link. Links should not be taken as an endorsement of any kind. The Landmark Trust has no control over the availability of the linked pages.

 

See all our Landmarks at Roslin

Clear directions
Essential info
What you need to know about this building
  • Yes. You are welcome to bring up to two dogs. A charge of £20 per stay is made for each dog. Please contact booking enquiries if you have an assistance dog, for which there is no charge.
  • From the main road.
  • Edinburgh Waverley  - 8 miles.
  • There is parking for three cars adjacent to the property.
  • There is a Type 2 Electric Vehicle charge point at the property.  You will need to request this facility at the time of booking to ensure the outlet has been enabled for your arrival.  There is a small charge to cover the cost of electricity provided.
  • There is a biomass boiler and wood burning stove.
  • Logs may be purchased and delivered under a private arrangement. Further details will be provided with your booking confirmation.
  • To check up-to-date mobile network coverage in the area, visit signalchecker.co.uk.* Due to the location and structure of many of our buildings, signal strength may differ to those indicated.
  • The majority of properties do not offer WiFi but many now have mobile coverage. Facilities in some properties rely on WiFi to function and we are currently piloting guest use of WiFi at a few of our buildings. We are going to extend the pilot across more properties and review customer feedback in 2025.
  • The kitchen is fully equipped with all plates, cutlery, fridge etc.
    There is also an electric cooker, microwave and a dishwasher.
  • There are two bathrooms, one with a free-standing shower unit and one with a bath.
  • There stairs are relatively steep.
  • There is an enclosed garden.  Our neighbours keep bees with 3 hives in their neighbouring garden.
  • Yes this property is neighbours Rosslyn Chapel visitor centre which has a large number of tourists.
Booking and Payment
  • If the weather is bad, please contact our booking office who will be able to tell you whether the Landmark is accessible. If the housekeeper can safely get to the building to prepare it then we consider that it is open and available for guests. However if we cannot undertake a changeover then we will do our utmost to transfer your stay to another Landmark, depending on what we have available. It may not be of a similar size or in the same part of the country as your original booking. If the building is accessible but the customer cannot travel due to poor weather in his/her local area then please be aware that Landmark will not provide a refund. However the customer may be able to claim on his/her own travel insurance. We recommend that all guests take out travel insurance when they first secure a booking.
  • We accept Maestro (if issued in the UK), Visa, MasterCard, direct transfer and sterling cheques drawn on a UK bank. Cheques should be made payable to the Landmark Trust except for Lundy stays and boat/helicopter tickets which should be payable to The Lundy Company Ltd. All payments must be in sterling.
  • The key arrangements will be included in the Further Infomation document which will be sent to you prior to your stay.
  • If your stay starts more than two months from the date you make the booking, you are required to pay a deposit of one third of the cost of your stay (or £100 per booking, if greater) at the time of booking. Camping on Lundy and The Bunk House at Llwyn Celyn must be paid for in full at the time of booking.
  • If you wish to cancel or change your booking, please contact our Booking Office on 01628 825925
  • At the moment we only accept payment in sterling.
  • Our housekeeper will leave the key in a suitable place, the details of which will be sent to you prior to your stay.
  • It depends. Some of our most popular Landmarks are booked up a long time in advance, but many can be booked at short notice. We will always have Landmarks free for the coming weekend so it’s always worth checking our availability list.
  • No, Landmarks are available to be booked for anyone.
  • No, all the information you need can be found on our website, although we’d like you to buy one anyway as it will be a pleasure to own!
Staying at a Landmark
  • Some of our Landmarks are suitable for people with disabilities or limited mobility. However, many Landmarks have steep or narrow staircases, uneven floors and thresholds, changes of level, low ceilings or beams, as well as indistinct colours on steps and in corridors. We recommend that you call Booking Enquiries on 01628 825925 if you would like to find out the suitability of a particular Landmark for anyone with a specific disability.  Further information on access when visiting Lundy can also be found here.
  • Yes, Landmarks are only available as self-catering accommodation. We do not offer bed and breakfast.
  • Landmark does not provide catering, but we can recommend Greycoat Lumleys who can arrange for expert and well-trained staff to cater for one evening or for your entire holiday. Their cooks and chefs are able to work with you to meet your specific requirements
  • You may bring up to two dogs to properties where dogs are allowed (please see specific property details for exemptions however dogs are not permitted on Lundy except assistance dogs). They must be kept off the furniture and under proper control. A charge of £20 per stay is made for each dog. Please contact booking enquiries if a registered assistance dog is supporting one of the guests, for which there is no charge.
  • Apart from two dogs (see above) no other pets are permitted.
  • Arrival is from 4pm and departure is by 10am.
  • We do not carry insurance for breakages. However we appreciate that accidents do sometimes happen. If you have a breakage during your stay, please let the housekeeper know and if appropriate we reserve the right to invoice you accordingly.
  • Yes, most of our Landmarks are perfect for children, with gardens to play in and secret places to discover. Our furniture is surprisingly robust and we positively encourage families to stay. However, some of our buildings may not be suitable for small children; for example, some of them have steep or uneven spiral staircases. We recommend that you call the Booking Enquiries team if you would like to find out the suitability of any of our Landmarks for young children.
  • Unfortunately, most of our Landmarks are not licensed for weddings. However, you may get married on Lundy.
  • All our larger Landmarks are perfect for gatherings of family or friends. You may invite an additional two guests to visit you during your stay, however they must not stay overnight. This is very important because our fire regulations specifically note the maximum number of people in any one building. In addition our properties are prepared, furnished and equipped for the number of people specified and greater numbers cause damage and excessive wear and tear to vulnerable buildings. Should this condition be ignored we shall make a retrospective charge per person per day (whether or not they stay overnight) for each guest over the permitted limit, the charge being pro-rated on the total cost of your booking.
  • We deliberately do not provide televisions and find that most people appreciate this.
  • One of the challenges of restoring unloved buildings is gaining access to them. We frequently have to negotiate rights with our neighbours and share tracks with them. In many cases tracks do not belong to us and we have no right to maintain them. Wherever possible we work with our neighbours to provide you with a good quality surface, but where this is a problem then you will be warned at the time of booking.
  • Yes, we have standard electricity sockets for UK appliances. If you are coming from outside the UK, you will need to bring your own adaptor plug(s). If you are visiting one of our European properties we have standard European electricity sockets. If you are visiting from the UK, you will need to bring your own adapter plug (s).
  • Landmark’s electrical systems have not been designed to provide continuous power from one socket over several hours.  If an ordinary socket is used to charge an electric vehicle, there is significant risk of an electrical fire and consequent danger to life.  Therefore, we are unable to allow electric vehicle charging from most of our Landmarks at present.

    We are working to provide Type 2 Electric Vehicle charge points at our properties where there is private parking.  Where this is available, please request this facility when booking the property to ensure the outlet is enabled on your arrival.  There is a small charge to cover the cost of electricity provided.  Please book this facility in advance.
  • No, we do not allow smoking in any Landmark.
Facilities
  • Sometimes our kitchens and bathrooms have to be imaginatively fitted into the available space in buildings where before there were none, but they are all planned and equipped to a high and modern standard.
  • Yes, Landmarks are fully equipped with sheets and towels. All the beds are fully made up for your arrival. Except for the Llwyn Celyn Bunkhouse.
  • Yes, our kitchens are well equipped with cookers and fridges. There are freezers and dishwashers (in larger buildings) and, where space allows, microwaves as well as a wide and standard range of utensils. A full equipment list is available at time of booking.
  • Logs are provided at many of our Landmarks for an additional cost.
  • Mobile coverage varies. Some Landmarks have an excellent signal, but others have none at all. You can find those with 4G and 5G signal on our Landmarks with mobile signal page and each building has a link to signal checker in the Essential Information so you can check individual service providers' coverage in the area.
  • The majority of properties do not offer WiFi but many now have mobile coverage. Facilities in some properties rely on WiFi to function and we are currently piloting guest use of WiFi at a few of our buildings. We are going to extend the pilot across more properties and review customer feedback in 2025.
  • A welcome tray with tea and sugar awaits your arrival and you will find a pint of milk in the fridge. We also provide toilet rolls and a bar of soap per basin, but no other toiletries. Hairdryers are provided.
History

An inn next to Rosslyn Chapel

Many famous travellers have found rest at Collegehill House, formerly Roslin Inn. The name ‘Collegehill’ refers to the fact that the chapel was built as a collegiate chapel whose priests were to pray for the soul of its founder. Thanks to this position hard by Rosslyn Chapel, the keepers of the inn were through the centuries de facto curators of the chapel, which represents one of the finest expositions of the work of Renaissance stonemasons in Europe.

Begun in 1446 the chapel was a picturesque ruin for much of its life. It was desecrated during the Reformation, Cromwellians stabled their horses there in 1650 and it was again attacked by a mob in an upsurge of antipathy towards Catholics in 1688. None of this prevented the Roslin glen and its surrounds from gaining a reputation as a romantic and picturesque destination for tourists and the Roslin Inn seems to have been built expressly as an inn, in 1660 according to its datestone. While not a grand building, it is well-built to a standard that might be expected of a minor laird’s house and in keeping with the pedigree of the St Clair estate on which it stood. Its walls include carefully dressed sandstone blocks which may well have come from Rosslyn Castle, slated by the Parliamentarians in 1650.

Visitors to Collegehill House and Rosslyn Chapel today have some eminent predecessors. Ben Johnson 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 Johnson replied with quicker wit than style, ‘Thank ye, thank ye, Hawthornden.’ After an all-night session in Edinburgh in 1787, Robbie Burns walked out to watch the dawn at Rosslyn with his friend James Nasmyth and then found a welcome breakfast at the Inn. He left his thanks in the form of a ditty scratched on a pewter plate. When Queen Victoria visited with her seventeen year old son in 1859, he left his mark on the Inn by scratching his name on a window pane – his writing was verified by his son, George V, who visited ninety years later. And James Boswell and Dr. Johnson lingered so long that they were late for their next appointment when they visited the inn during their Tour of Scotland in 1773. Francis Grose, J M W Turner and the Wordsworths all came to pay homage to this romantic spot.

The innkeepers who also acted as gatekeepers and curators of the Chapel were in some instances hardly less colourful than their visitors. Annie Wilson holds a particular place, having kept house at the inn first with her husband and then as a widow for some forty years. She had a set patter that she never varied, as she showed visitors around the chapel, pointing out features of interest with a long stick. A reporter from The Gentleman’s Magazine immortalised her nutcracker profile and purposeful demeanour in a sketch published in 1817.

The building ceased to be an inn in 1863 when the name Roslin Inn passed to an establishment in the village. It became known instead by the grander name of Collegehill House, in keeping with its new role as home for the Earl of Rosslyn’s factor, John Thomson. He was a Freemason and during his tenure and beyond, the Roslin Lodge met in the first floor sitting room at Collegehill. In the twentieth century the Taylor family took over as chapel custodians for three generations. In the 1940s and 50s, Collegehill House again opened its doors to guests, becoming a tearoom famed for its cakes under Dorothy Taylor, helped by her daughters Evelyn and Dorothy. The last curator, Judith Fiskin, left the house after fifteen years there in 1996. When the Rosslyn Chapel Trust was founded in 1997, the position of curator was largely superseded by the Visitor Centre there, and the appointment ceased.

The structure of Collegehill House evolved through three main phases. The original T-plan is probably contemporary with the 1660 datestone above the front door. After minor modifications in the early eighteenth century, major remodelling then followed c.1760-70 when a new rear wing was constructed and the interiors reorganised. This perhaps reflects increased trade as tourist interest heightened in such picturesque sites. Then sometime between 1790–1810 the east wing was added. Minor works seem to have taken place when it became the factor’s house, with the front entrance remodelled and some windows replaced.

For a short history of Collegehill House please click here.

To read the full history album for Collegehill House please click here.

To download the children's Explorer pack for Collegehill House please click here.

Restoration

In a state of collapse

In 1986 the south wall of the room at the east end of the house (now the Landmark kitchen) collapsed, probably due to a local earth tremor, and the north wall also had to be shored up. Repairs were undertaken then by the architects Simpson & Brown of Edinburgh, who have also had a long involvement with the chapel.

With the foundation of the Chapel Trust the estate was keen to ensure that Collegehill House not only had assured maintenance for the future, but also that its very special setting should be enjoyed by as many as possible. To this end Landmark agreed to take the building on, and its conversion and refurbishment were once more handled on the Rosslyns’ behalf by Simpson and Brown.

Throughout its history Collegehill House has been owned by the Earls of Rosslyn on whose behalf the Landmark Trust also lets Rosslyn Castle. It seems fitting that this honest, welcoming building is once more offering hospitality to visitors. Since its appropriation for the fictitious climax of the Da Vinci Code, Rosslyn Chapel’s fame has increased still further and it has become a thriving tourist attraction. In the lovely first floor sitting room at the rear of Collegehill House, however, you can enjoy a private grandstand view of this glorious flowering of the mason’s craft over the garden wall.

Availability & booking

Select a changeover day to start your booking...

What's a changeover day? and Why can't I select other dates?Explain MoreQuestion

A changeover day is a particular day of the week when holidays start and end at our properties. These tend to be on a Friday or a Monday but can sometimes vary. All stays run from one changeover day until another changeover day.