Field Visit
Date 20 March 1928
Event ID 1115530
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1115530
Roslin Chapel, formerly St Matthew's Collegiate Church.
The collegiate church at Roslin, commonly called Roslin Chapel, stands high on the left bank of the river North Esk, some 300 yards south-south-east of the modern village, overlooking to south and east the wooded slopes of Rosslyn Glen and Roslin Castle. Only to the north is the site level, for in other directions it is limited by a steep bank which falls to the river on the south.
The church was dedicated to St Matthew and was intended to comprise a choir, nave and transepts, but the choir alone was completed. This has two side aisles and a transverse aisle or retro-choir, east of the sanctuary, giving access to four eastern chapels. The two central chapels occupy the width of the central aisle of the choir, and to suit this construction the return of the choir arcade is also in two bays, thus introducing a pier on the axis of the church, an unusual arrangement, but found also in similar circumstances at Glasgow Cathedral. A staircase, passing under the south-eastern chapel, leads down to a large sacristy east of the church and some 17 feet lower. Below the floor of the choir is the burial vault of the St Clairs of Rosslyn.
[See RCAHMS 1929, pp. 98-106 for a detailed architectural description.]
HISTORICAL NOTE. At the end of the list of collegiate churches in the Scotichronicon, which was compiled about 1447, it is stated that William de St Clair, Earl of Orkney, was engaged in building a ‘sumptuous’ structure at Roslin. According to Father Hay, ‘he caused artificers to be brought from other regions and forraigne kingdomes, and caused dayly to be abundance of all kind of workemen present, as masons, carpenters, smiths, barrowmen, and quarriers, with others; for it is remembred, that for the space of thirty-four years before, he never wanted great numbers of such workmen . . . he caused the draughts (i.e. drawings) to be made upon Eastland boords, and made the carpenters to carve them according to the draughts thereon, and then gave them for patterns to the masons, that they might therby cut the like in stone…to the master massone he gave 40 pounds yearly, and to everyone of the rest £10, and accordingly did he reward the others, as the smiths and the carpenters with others’ (1). The foundation charter has not survived. The Earldom of Orkney was surrendered, with compensation, in 1471 and annexed to the Crown. Sir William St Clair, thereafter styled Earl of Caithness, died between 1482 and 1484. His second father-in-law, by his testament dated 1456, desired his body to be buried ‘in the College Kirk of ane hie and mychti lord Wilyam Earl of Caithness and Orknay . . . in Rosslyng’, and left money for a daily service by a priest and for ‘the byggyn and reparatioun of the said College Kyrk’. Earl William's son and successor, Sir Oliver St Clair, is stated by Father Hay (c. 1700) to have ‘finished the Chapell, as appears by his scutcheon in the vault, whereon there appears only a ragged cross, as also on the left hand of the window of the sacristie under ground; whereas above the high altar there is a scutcheon quartered Cathnes and Roslin, and betwixt in the second and third window, from the east to the west, there is a scutcheon quartered Cathnes, Norway, or some other family’ (2).
In February 1523-4 Sir William St Clair of Rosslyn granted lands for the erection of a camera or mansio with garden for each of the members of the establishment; one which should pertain to the altar of St Matthew and the provost, a second to the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the sacrist, another to the altar of St Andrew the Apostle and the third prebendary, and a fourth to the altar of St Peter the Apostle and the fourth prebendary (3). In February 1571-2 Sir John Robesoun, last provost, with the consent of the College, made a grant of the lands in favour of Edward St Clair, son and heir of Sir William St Clair of Roslin (4). The College was not a parish kirk, but the presence of images and altars were an offence to the Presbytery of Dalkeith. In 1590 there were six altars standing and some broken images. St Clair at first absolutely refused to demolish the altars, then, under threat of excommunication, removed the uppermost stones; finally, in 1592, the altars were reported to the Presbytery as. reduced to ‘ane stane or twa hight’. The Church was further defaced by a mob in December 1688. No repair was done till 1736, when the windows, which had been shuttered, were glazed, the roof was mended and the floor laid with flagstones. A more complete restoration was carried through in 1861-2, when the building began again to be used for service.
RCAHMS 1929, visited 20 March 1928.
(1) Genealogie of the Sainteclaires of Rosslyn, p. 27; (2) Ibid., p. 107; (3) Ibid., pp. 124-7; (4) Ibid., pp. 146-9.
