Best walks in Scotland: Rosslyn chapel and Roslin Glen

Midlothian

The start and end of this walk is by the extraordinary Rosslyn Chapel, whose mysteries and architecture made it a pilgrimage place long before its key role in Dan Brown’s thriller The Da Vinci Code began drawing tourists. This is a walk that, as it moves through ruins and preserved history, through stonework overgrown with greenery, spins an animist spell.

Route: Begin the walk from the car park in the direction of the chapel’s visitor centre. Before you get there, take the first right down the lane, where you will pass the chapel graveyards. Where the path forks, ignore the path to the left. Follow the signs for Roslin Glen gunpowder mill. Keep following this route, which becomes a stepped path, until you reach a road.

At this point keep left and descend the long flight of steps. From there the path will level off. When you have passed the sewage works bear right and you will reach another road. Turn right and follow it for about 200 metres, until you reach the gunpowder mill gate posts for Roslin Glen. Pass through them.

Follow the path towards the remains of the gunpowder mills. Then, after passing them, go up the steps and cross the bridge of the river, before heading still further upwards, following signs for the Penicuik and Dalkeith walkway. When you meet the line of the old railway head left along it, before walking under a bridge and past former Rosslyn Castle station. Keep walking along the old platform as you go under another bridge, then take a left to come out onto the road. Follow the road until it meets the B7003, cross it and turn left.

After you’ve passed the entrance to Roslin Glen car park take a right onto a path that follows the river North Esk. Keep left at a junction and you’ll reach a footbridge over the river and signs for Rosslyn Castle. Pass round the left side of the castle and take the path up. You can view this 16th-century building, which was restored in the 1980s and is currently scheduled for further renovation and repair, from the bridge that reaches the property – but the building is private.

To return to the car park or the village and public transport routes,

take the path back up past the graveyard and turn left at the top.

Don’t miss: Visit the 15th-century chapel (£9.50 adult admission), and you’ll see echoes between the way that vines clamber up walls, or roots twist into the ground, and the lush intricacies of the building’s carvings.

This is a good walk at any time of year, but particularly in winter, when both chapel and park provide a reminder that the Green Man is out there even in the darkest months.

He is everywhere in the chapel, his carved face emerging from the architecture, alongside symbols of nature, from ferns to kale and oak leaves. See if you can spot all his faces – there are said to be more than 100.

Also visit the gunpowder mills which played a key role in Midlothian’s industrial past, manufacturing explosives for mining and quarrying. At one time the river was polluted by the mills, but it now thrives, home to dippers, kingfishers, and the odd shy otter.

Useful information: The chapel hosts services, regular events and candlelight visits. See rosslynchapel.com

Start: Rosslyn chapel car park

Distance: 2.75 miles

Time: 2 hours (there is plenty to explore)

Terrain: Mostly woodland and riverside paths, which can be steep, slippy or boggy in places.

Level: Ideal for a family walk with older children. Some stretches may be tricky for elderly or very small children.

Access: Walk from the chapel’s visitor car park, or if there’s no space, park up in the village and walk down.

What makes it special: This is a place that seems to writhe with history, in which stonework and the organic forms of the plant life seem to merge. Enjoy the view of Rosslyn chapel, protected by a covered structure (entrance to chapel and museum is paid, ), the walk across the bridge to Roslin castle and a wander along the river itself.

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