At Rosslyn

Having been held up in both Los Angeles and Heathrow airports, I’ve arrived in Edinburgh with our students and made a delightful trip to Rosslyn Chapel, where Christian symbolism runs riot in an extraordinary display of stone carving. Here allegory is the language of the masons who built this lovely little chapel, almost bringing musicians, angels and biblical figures to life in the stonework of the ceilings and walls. I find this kind of imagery extraordinarily inspiring – clearly others do too, with Da Vinci Code devotees filling the coffers of the owners of the chapel, allowing them to rebuild the roof and repair the wear and tear of centuries of neglect and misguided restorations.

In these pictures: The Bronze Age tomb at Cairnpapple Hill, an allegory of death, one of many Green Men, a curious Angel and a horned Moses with tablet.