So I’ve decided to do one last “roots” voyage/journey. It may well be the last major journey of its kind. Thus i decided to give some running commentary occasionally throughout the voyage and as i am awaiting the call to brekkie, here’s the first update.
Yesterday i visited Rosslyn Chapel for the third time. Dan Brown has destroyed its personalness for me. You now have to book a reservation just to get in; there is a major paved road down to the site with three (3) parking lots, one of which is dedicated to enormous tour buses of which there seems to be at least two (2) every hour…
While the Chapel remains an operational Anglican church (my Dad & I actually worshipped there at an Evening Vespers service in 1986) the site is now overseen by a “Trust”! It does privide a lengthy story of the Sinclairs and our connection to the site (many new/updates audio-visual aids and info kiosks dot the site as well as a large gift shopp) and there are periodic mini-lectures to highlight the facility. But for us Sinclairs it is no longer an intimate family spiritual retreat. For one thing the Crypts are no longer accessible so we cant visit many of our ancestors burial sites. [Thus i am most thankful that I was able to take Christopher & Kelti in 1992 to the Chapel as they were able to explore it all before they were closed off when the Trust was set up and the movie was made!]
Another less permanent disappointment was the closure of access to Rosslyn Castle the seat of the Chief of the Clan due to rehabilitation/construction activities.
In the end i was glad i went but sad it is now a tourist attraction more than a spiritual monument to my ancestral beliefs and aspirations.
(Getting there and back by public transit was a novel experience for me, but the double-decker bus did afford a great site-seeing moment that driving there never did!!)
The day concluded with a wonderful Mediterranean meal at a small restaurant called Beirut a short walk from the hotel.

And that’s it for my first reflections from Scotland on this sixth visit to my Gaelic roots…

gw