We visited Rosslyn for the first time in the early summer of 2000. In doing some preparatory reading for the visit, ‘The Temple and the Lodge’ by Baigent and Leigh was consulted and ‘by chance’ the reference to Temple near Rosslyn was noted and incorporated into the itinerary.

Does anything happen just by chance?

Whilst nothing can match the particular atmosphere of Rosslyn, Temple has a special and captivating atmosphere all of its own. The peace and tranquillity that greets you as you enter the graveyard is unmatched, except perhaps at one or two of the ancient centres of the light around the British Isles. On two occasions photographs with strange anomalies have been produced.

Enquiries about Temple to knowledgeable people have been greeted on two or three occasions by the simple reply ‘it’s sacred’ with no further enlightenment! This was sufficient encouragement to try and produce this article, to try to unpick some facts from the fabric of the area. The journey proved interesting, revealing links between the Templars and the Hospitallers (the Knights of St.John of Jerusalem and Malta), it further emphasised the links between the Templars and the Masons and thus provided a glimpse as to why the site is sacred to both the Templars and the Freemasons.

Tantalisingly, the link between the Templars and the Hospitallers has been highlighted in the new edition of ‘The Bloodline of the Holy Grail’ where Laurence Gardner reveals that, in 1307, Robert the Bruce set up an Order known as the Elder Brethren of the Rosy Cross with senior representatives of both the Templars and the Hospitallers. It is interesting to note the date! This also one of the earliest references to the Rosicrucians. The Stuarts eventually took the concept to London when they ruled over both countries. This eventually led to the establishment of the Royal Society in the seventeenth century with a predominance of Rosicrucian members.

In the course of the research for this article, three different spellings of Balantradoch were noted, with Ballantradoch and Balantrodach being the other variants. The most commonly encountered spelling has been used throughout.

History.

The generally accepted date for the establishment of the Order of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon - later shortened to the Knight Templar was 1118, although Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln in ‘The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail’ put a very persuasive argument that the Order had been founded at least four years earlier in 1114.

Although Hugues de Payen was the nominal founder of the Order, it is likely that more significant figures, such as the Counts of Anjou and Champagne amongst others, provided the incentive for the foundation of the Order. It seems clear from numerous modern accounts that the Rex Deus families, sometimes called the desposyni (as outlined by Gardner in ‘The Bloodline of the Holy Grail’) - namely the bloodline descendants of Jesus (sometimes called the underground stream) - had very clear motives for wishing to return to Jerusalem. It was members of these families that caused the Templars to be established.

In 1128, Hugues de Payen arrived in Britain as part of a major ‘recruitment drive’ for the Templars. He had been well received in France, gaining numerous adherents and lands and was similarly received in both England and Scotland. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle stated :-

“ he was received by all good men, and they all gave presents to him; and in Scotland in like manner. And moreover they sent to Jerusalem great wealth in gold and silver. And he invited people out to Jerusalem, and there went along with him and after him so many people as more had never done before since the first expedition during the days of Pope Urban.” (quoted in the Scottish Review, July 1898, page 3).

In Scotland, Hugues de Payen, who had been married to a member of the St. Clair family before forming the Templars, found particular favour with King David 1, by all accounts a devout man. Aelred, writing about the King had this to say :-

he ‘entrusted himself entirely to the guidance of religious (monks), retaining beside him the most noble brethren of the distinguished military order of the Temple of Jerusalem, he made them both by day and night custodians of his morals.’

King David awarded the Templars the village and lands around Balantradoch as the site of their first and main preceptory in Scotland.

Balantradoch can be translated as ‘the settlement of the warrior’. Whilst the Templars in Britain were primarily governed from the main Temple in London 

and Balantradoch remained subordinate; nevertheless it became an important centre for the Templars in Scotland.

The Scottish Review (page 6): -

The names of the Preceptors, or Masters, have not been preserved as an accurate list but the ones that are known seem to be mainly English or French, bearing in mind that many British noble families still bore Norman or French names at this time, e.g. the St. Clair family. The names that are known include Bartholomew, Robert of the Temple, Ranuelph Corbet, Hugh de Conyers, Roger de Aikney, Brian de Jay, John de Soulre, John de Huseflete and Brother Walter de Clifton. In truth there were never all that many knights of the Order actually based in Scotland, most members being of the second or third ranks, namely chaplains (capillari) or serjeants (servientes armorum). Many of the knights who served as preceptors over the years were men of great experience who age or injury were unsuited to serve in other areas.

The main site was close to the South Esk river - see map - on a small terrace next to the river. This site included the aforementioned Preceptory, the church, a mill and a large dovecote. Incidentally, a conversation with the owner of the old manse situated next to

the church, elicited the information that significant

stonework had been discovered whilst digging around the foundations of the manse. This presumably was part of the remains of the Preceptory and seems to confirm the information contained in the Scottish Review.

The main occupation at this time lay in farming with a number of serfs living in small cottages within the village. They were expected to give time to tilling, farrowing etc. on the Preceptory lands. They would also have reared some animals. Some would have worked in the mill on the opposite bank of the South Esk grinding corn, but possibly also iron and silver ore, which was obtainable in the local hills.

It must be remembered that Balantradoch was located in the middle of the St. Clair lands and would have received considerable support from that family. There was also close links with another preceptory on the south side of the river Dee at what is now the modern parish of Maryculter. Of course, the preceptories were not the only lands under the control of the Knights Templar; they were given the rights to many manors and other estates. Most of their possessions in Scotland were in the Lothians - namely the area to the south of Edinburgh on the eastern side of the country.

In 1308, following the ‘official’ dissolution of the Templar order by Pope Clement in 1307, the Preceptory at Balantradoch was given over to the Knights of St. John. This handover actually took place because this part of the country was under the control of the English at this time. The Knights of St. John substantially rebuilt the church into a more traditional rectangular shape and the preceptory buildings gradually fell into disrepair, but otherwise life seemed to carry on in much the same way as it had under the Templars. At this time the inhabitants were expected to give one tenth of their income (tithing) to the Knights of St. John to pay for the upkeep of the church, the preceptory and for the maintenance of the poor. This does not seem to have been carried out very effectively.

With regard to the dissolution, it is worth noting that the two Scottish knights, Brother Walter de Clifton and William de Middleton, were examined in front of forty witnesses at the Church of the Holy Cross in Edinburgh by the Bishop of St. Andrews and the 

Papal Chaplain, John Solario, concerning the so-called misdemeanours of the Templars. This searching examination elicited nothing of either criminal or heretical nature! In the rest of Scotland, very little seemed to happen as a result of the dissolution of the Order. England and Scotland were at war, Robert the Bruce had been excommunicated and the end result was that a large number of Templar knights fled to Scotland to avoid persecution. These knights came from the Scottish borders, England and a large number from the Continent on board the Templar fleet. It is now generally accepted that a significant force of Knights Templar took the field on the side of Robert the Bruce at the battle of Bannockburn and played an important role in the defeat of the English.

Liddell in his ‘Abstract History’, a brief Masonic Templar document has this to say about this period - “ After which (Bannockburn) the Order continued as a coherent body for the next four hundred years. Indeed when the body of John Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee, was recovered from the battlefield of Killiecrankie in 1689, he was found to be wearing the Grand Cross of the Order of the Knights Templar. It was his death that consequently led to the Earl of Mar succeeding him as Grand Master, and it was on his decease that the Duke of Athol assumed the administration and Regency of the Order.”

In 1745 at Holyrood, Prince Charles Stuart was elected Grand Master and he so remained until his death in 1788, even though he and most of the Templars had fled to France after the battle of Culloden in 1745. It was in this period that closer ties with the masonic order, already underway in the late fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, gathered pace and has continued to the present day.

Johnston Stephen writing about Temple in the Cockpen Bazaar Book (1897) stated “ In one of De Quincey’s papers there is elaborate examination of theories that have been advanced by different writers concerning the Templar’s rituals and practices, some of them seeking to show that the ritual of the Free Masonry of today is a survival of, or has in it vestiges of, that which belonged to the Order of Templars.” The same author makes the point that late in the nineteenth century there were still current documents referring to the Templars holding land.

After the Act of Reformation in 1535 under Henry VIII, the Knights of St. John lost their control of Balantradoch. The church was enlarged to make it more ‘suitable’ for Protestant worship and a gallery was added at the western end (see chapter on the church). In 1618, Balantradoch had its name changed to the Parish of Temple when it was combined with the ancient parish of Clerkington and the chapelry of Morthwait (also known as Muirfoot or Morphet). The church then remained in use until the eighteenth century when a new church was built over the road from it.

The Reverend James Goldie, at the end of the eighteenth century commented on the declining numbers in the parish.

Between 1723 and 1733, they averaged 31.5 baptisms a year, 6.5 marriages and 33.5 funerals.

Between 1784 and 1794, they averaged 15.5 baptisms a year, 1.5 marriages and 16 funerals.

The decrease in numbers is very evident. The population at this time were still primarily engaged in ‘farming and pasturage.’

The modern village is of a linear type, i.e. it consists of one street. Main Street consists primarily of eighteenth century cottages. The oldest cottage is no. 21, built in 1760, which has TB and a compass and set square carved on its lintel. Numbers 25-27 was built in 1761 and no. 35 in 1785. Others were built in the first half of the nineteenth century. The United Free Church (see map) was built in 1844 and converted in 1964 into the Tradoch Hall. The inhabitants seem to consist of retired people, some agricultural workers and a few commuters.

The church is a simple rectangle about 55 feet (15.5 metres) long and 17 feet 9 inches (5.5 metres) wide internally. Most of the present structure dates from after 1312 when the Knights of St. John were granted the title to Balantradoch by Pope Clement V following the suppression of the Templars. The church is on the site of the Templar church and, no doubt, parts of the present structure date from the thirteenth century. After the Reformation in 1535 (Henry VIII), the Knights Hospitaller were dispossessed in their turn and the Church had to be made ‘suitable’ for Protestant worship. Some 17 feet (5 metres) were added at the western end including a gallery along the west wall with a high-level access door. At the same time the slightly incongruous belfry was added at the east end and two other side doors to the church. These are identified on the accompanying plan.

In the original building, the five windows remain. The aesthetically pleasing east window dominates that end of the church. The north and south walls both have two fine traceried windows, although the western one in the north wall has been blocked off, with some evidence of it showing in the 

interior. In addition, there are two narrow lancet windows in the north and south walls near the west end of the original building. All these windows have hoods terminated with carvings of roses.

On the north wall, close to the trefoil-headed sacristy door, there is a small arched area, now largely derelict, thought to have been the Easter sepulchre. Nearly opposite, on the south wall, are the remains of an arched sedilia, this was a seating area for two people, each space having a trefoil shaped arch over it. A piscina, now in poor condition, is also located in this area. This was a basin with a drain used for the washing of hands at appropriate times during the services.

The older part of the church has some fine buttresses setting off the building to good effect. These are grouped on the east and south sides of the church (see photograph of Temple from the east). Similar buttresses were to be found on both the north and south walls but there are now only the two remaining in the south. It is possible that the cut stone (ashlar) from the missing buttresses was used in the construction of the west end of the church.

The gable ends of the church are of much interest (see photographs). The older eastern end has had the belfry added and there is evidence of the wear in the stone caused by the bell rope. Beneath the bell space, on the right hand side, there is an inscription in the stone, unfilled with lead, thought to represent Latin initials (see following photograph).

Some people (Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries) have interpreted this as an ancient Roman inscription rescued from a pre-existing site, but it is now more logically seen as a later inscription, possibly dating to the period following the taking over of the site by the Knights Hospitaller in 1312.

The Illustrated Architectural Guide to Midlothian (1995) interprets the inscription as:

VIENNE SACRUM MILITIBUS JOHANNIS HIEROSOLYMITANI MELITENSIBUS.

which translates as:

‘The Sacred Council of Vienna to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem and Malta.’

A later translation (2001) was proposed by Jeff Nisbet, an American researcher, who thought that it was associated with the Templar belief in the holy bloodline descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene and perhaps to the voyage of Henry St. Clair to America.

Beneath this stone is a round, heavily weathered sandstone boss set in the wall, the significance of which is hard to detect. The ‘newer’ gable at the western end is surmounted by a Templar cross, presumably rescued from the site and set in place when this section was erected.

At the eastern end of the north wall, there are two items of interest. Beneath the window there is a heavily weathered tomb recess from the late fourteenth century and, next to it but higher up the wall, there is a projecting weather-table indicating that there was perhaps a monument, tomb or even a sacrament house at this point.

MacGibbon and Ross writing in 1896 in Volume 2 of The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland date the main body of the church as being late fourteenth century, although an earlier date would have been ascribed except that “ in Scotland allowance must be 

made for backwardness.” It seems likely however that a considerably earlier date can be assumed. The same authors also state that the church “ is valuable as an example of the decorated period in Scotland, of which period few, if any, parish churches are now to be found.”

The Graveyard.

The graveyard is situated in a beautiful wooded area in a loop of the South Esk river. It is bounded by high walls to the north, east and south and by the old manse with its walled garden in the west. The graveyard itself and the church are on a flat, low-lying area although bounded by terraces to the east and south. It is shaped as an irregular quadrilateral, roughly 200 feet (60 metres) from west to east and of a similar dimension from north-west to south-east.

The graveyard has short well-tended grass and is a haven of peace and tranquillity, well justifying its description of ‘sacred’ by Templars and freemasons alike. There is a seat located near to the entrance where it is a delight to sit and meditate on a pleasant day.

There are numerous gravestones in the graveyard (see photograph of Temple from the east). They date mainly from the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but there are some older stones in the cemetery, which have been missed by some authorities. These are mainly to be found on the terrace in the south-east corner. Some of the stones in the main area may also be a little older as they have a Templar ‘feel’ about them. The graveyard does clearly show the links that can be established between the Templars and the Masons. Inside the church there is a ‘modern’ twentieth century stone showing a Templar influence. On the east wall of the church there is a monument to Charles Kitchener (1831) of the Stobs Mill gunpowder works.

See following two pages for examples on some of the noteworthy gravestones in the graveyard:

Work is ongoing in the area around the old churchyard to discover more about the Templar occupation of the site. A groundscan of the land attached to the Old Manse, now a private house, has been undertaken, under the auspices of Pharo.com., the mystery channel, by Radar World Ltd. of the Elvinstone Science Centre near Edinburgh. The funding for the scan was provided by Niven Sinclair. The project has the twin aims of discovering more about this important Templar site and evaluating the efficacy of new technology in studying such historic sites.

As the Pharo.com web site explains: -

“Radar World’s ADR (Atomic Dielectric Resonance) system is a development of conventional radar technology that enables the operators to detect not only the presence of objects underground but also to determine the substance of which they are composed. This is a significant advance on current ground-scanning techniques, such as Ground Penetrating radar, which can only indicate the presence and approximate size and shape of subsurface artefacts.....

The system has obvious advantages in that are non-invasive, comparatively cheap and flexible.

The scheme commenced in December 2001, with a series of vertical and horizontal scans (see illustrations on next page) being eventually completed. These were used to draw up a composite picture of the grounds of the Old Manse. The results of the ADR scan are being used to draw up plans for series of concentrated excavations on the site to determine the true extent of the Templar holdings there. “The ADR system identified several possible graves and metallic objects, along with various interesting subsurface structures that appear to be walls and arches, beneath the grounds of the Old Manse.” There is also the possibility of a tunnel and stone steps on the site.

The scans are completed as in the left-hand diagram at set intervals across the site. They are compiled into a sketch in the form of an isometric diagram as in the right-hand diagram to build up a picture of the site.

In varying degrees, we can all feel the spirituality of sites such as Temple, Rosslyn, Melrose Abbey and also the great ancient places such as Avebury, Stonehenge, Castlerigg, Carnac and the Giza Plateau. It is something that we feel within us, in our heart centre.

Temple has been described as ‘sacred’ by Templars and Freemasons. In common with Rosslyn, it is obvious that there are also links between the two groups. It is not just however that they have both used the sites but the fact that there is something about the sites that caused them to be used. They are centres for the Light of Spirit.

Visiting these sites should be seen as part of a journey that we are all making. It is a journey of personal discovery, of enlightenment. Such a journey is always more pleasant if you travel with like-minded friends, but we must never lose sight of the fact that we are on a personal voyage. We are striving to reach the same goal but on different pathways. What we each see, feel and experience may well be totally different for we are all seeking our own Holy Grail. The Grail stories of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were all about individual, personal journeys of discovery.

So in visiting Temple we are taking a step on our own search for the Holy Grail. As E. & D. Begg state in “In Search of the Holy Grail and the Precious Blood”:-

“The Grail King who lies in our interior castle, guarding

the vessel which contains the secret of our real identity is, perhaps, none other than our own inner god who sent us forth on our quest of soul-making.”

In summing up the wonder of Temple, one can simply say that there is far, far, more there than the sum total of its immediately apparent parts.

Bob Mander