In 1450, William Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, began construction on the Rosslyn Collegiate Church outside the small village of Roslin, Scotland; his second-oldest son, Oliver, seems to have been responsible for its completion. The original plans are lost, so it's not clear if Sinclair intended for additions to the chapel, and there's no explanation of the building's elaborate ornamentation. As for Solomon's temple being its inspiration, the model for the chapel's.

Floor plan can be found a few miles away at the Glasgow Cathedral. Around 1600, another William Sinclair, descended from the former,became a patron of the Masons. Eventually, the Sinclairs became Scottish Freemasons, and mystery surrounding the guild prompted speculations about Rosslyn Chapel. No connections between Rosslyn and the Templars were conjectured before the nineteenth century.

The church's name comes from its location on a promontory (ross) and the nearby River Esk (lynn), not from its supposed position upon the north-south meridian passing through Glastonbury (DVC, 432-33). The chapel's latitude is 5585N; Glastonbury sits at 5109N. Contemporary searches for caverns beneath the chapel have been fruitless; it is doubtful that the chapel would survive excavations beneath its foundation. See also Boaz and Jachin. See map of Roslin, Scotland, page 203.