Authors Notes

I guess I should copy Dan Brown and say something like ‘all the facts about Roslin used in this story are true’. But that would be cheesy, as well as potentially copyright theft. What is true?

The Roslin Institute is real, (although its now part of Edinburgh University). There is a building near the entrance to the Institute grounds, where it really is hard to get a mobile phone signal. There is also a mini version of Orthanc in the fields away north of the Institute. Search Google Images for ‘Dryden Tower Midlothian’ and you’ll see what I mean.

There was a Battle of Roslin in 1303, and the Sinclair family was involved – Google ‘battle Roslin 1303’ and you’ll find several pages. The architecture of the Chapel of Rosslyn is also described on many pages.

The connection between Rosslyn Chapel and the Knights Templar, is discussed in many books and novels as well as the Da Vinci code. One example is ‘Templar Treasure’ by Katharine Kurtz (the Deryni author) and Mercedes Lackey. This comes to a (somewhat gruesome) climax in the village of Temple. Temple is an attractive little village, which has its own web-site that does mention a history of fairy sightings in the area. Sadly, the main road south from Edinburgh to Roslin and then Penicuik is quite unromantic – unless you find romance in an electricity sub-station, a couple of trading estates, and an IKEA superstore.

On the other hand, the back road from Penicuik (pronounced more or less like ‘Penny Cook’), does exist – it’s the B6372 and it really can be that dark at night. Have I seen an uncanny scare-crow singing laments and murder ballads? Now, that would be telling.

The CD mentioned in the story is The Bramble Briar, by English singer-guitarist Martin Simpson (Topic Records). It’s a collection of traditional British songs and tunes, which received numerous accolades and prizes on its release in 2001, and is available from Amazon. The song ‘Sammy’s Bar is actually written by the late Cyril Tawney, but the others mentioned are all ‘trad’ or ‘anon’. For those of you that like that sort of music, this is about as good as it gets. Thousands of guitarists have been driven to ‘despair and lamentation’ trying to get their fingers around these arrangements. Even Daeron admits they are pretty good ‘cover versions’ – well for a mortal that is…..