- The Holy Grail is rumored to be hidden in the chapel. Below the chapel there is a crypt with several angels on the wall. If you can figure out which angel to start with, you can move around the circle and one of them will be looking directly at the location of it. Of course, you have to know which one to start with in order to end up at the correct one. In addition, the engineers have already had a peek inside the walls and floors in every direction with various technologies like X-rays and RADAR. Physical excavation would damage the chapel, so right now that's all they can do. So far, they haven't found anything, though they continue to look. You never know what they may find. The Holy Grail may yet be uncovered at some point.

- There is a rumor of Knights Templar treasure being buried in crypts under the floor of the main chapel. There are references in the carvings to Knights Templar well after they were supposedly disbanded along with references to the Masons long before they had come to the area. Some of those symbols are combined, suggesting Knights Templar roots in the Masons. In addition, the chapel is said to be modeled after Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem (a headquarters of the Knights Templar just prior to their disappearance) rather than the traditional cross of many other chapels.

- There are two pillars of interest. These are different than any of the others in the chapel.

The story goes that Sir William Saint Clair, who commissioned the chapel in 1446, wanted a pillar that was a duplicate of one in a cathedral in Rome. He hired a mason to recreate it. The mason went off to Rome to look at the original, which in that time was a lengthy trip. In the meantime, the mason's apprentice reported to Sir William that he had dreamed about the pillar and could reproduce it from memory. Sir Willaim agreed to let him perform the work and was pleased with the result.

After the pillar was complete and in place, the mason return and was enraged to find the work already finished. He blugeoned the apprentice to death with a mallot in his anger.

When the other masons in the area heard about the act, they killed the murdurous mason. They created a second pillar to accompany the apprentice pillar on the opposite side of the alter.

In addition, at the back of the chapel just below the organ, they created two carvings at either side of the chapel. One carving depicts the apprentice, while the other depicts the mason. The mason is condemned to stare at the apprentice pillar for all enternity across the room. The apprentice looks down on the pillar created by the masons that killed his murderer.

The interesting thing about the two carvings is that the mason's face has undergone severe water damage over the years and is in poor condition. It's almost as though nature is threatening to erase him.

Meanwhile, back in near the fortress of Edinburgh...

Following our tour of Rosslyn, we headed back to Edinburgh where we split up to tour the city and find some dinner. My parents and I headed off together. We strolled up and down a few streets, taking a few pictures along the way.

We ended up in an area where the restaurants were quite expensive, so we retreated back a bit to a more reasonable area. We searched some more before coming upon "The Conan Doyle", a small pub and restaurant at the end of York Place, opposite Picardy Place. The food was reasonable and we enjoyed the style of the place.

I've read some reviews that absolutely slam the place, but our experience was quite good. I read a few of the negative comments and I think I can address a few:

- Most of the negatives include an a slow or unfriendly staff. However, the place is always busy and is seat yourself, so they aren't always going to get to you quickly. In addition, it appears the staff has little time to chat. I've had much slower and much less friendly service in American restaurants during the slowest times.

- Many comments remark about the price of drinks. Well, you're in an expensive section of Edinburgh. If you really want to see high prices, go up a block or two. The prices there weren't cheap, but reasonable for Edinburgh.

- Some comments reflect the small selection of beer. That is true. However, we weren't there for the beer. We were hungry. It's primarilly a restaurant, not a pub. If you're out to drink, this isn't the place to go. There are plenty of real pubs around the area.

- There were other silly complaints like the lack of football (soccer) team colors (Who cares? It's not a sports bar.), the prize for the trival contest being a case of Smithwicks beer (What kind of an idiot complains about a free case of beer as a prize from a bar contest?), and the direction the door opens (apparently it's uncommon over there for doors to open outward).

Overall, we enjoyed the place. Your mileage may vary. I don't have a vested interest one way or another.

We go out walking after.......8:30PM

Around 8PM, a there was a knock at the door after we had returned to the B & B. It was my sister wondering if we would like to go on the City of the Dead tour. We opted to go with her.

The tour starts at St. Giles cathedral and goes through the nearby Greyfriars Cemetary. In additon, the tour visits the Covenanters Prison and the Black Mausoleum, which is alledged to be haunted by the Mackenzie Poltergeist. Oddly enough, his mausoleum is outside the prison gates, but the activity has been from within.

Apparently, the poltergueist has only recently made itself known. In 1999, a homeless man slipped into the unlocked Mackenzie mausoleum hoping to find a dry place to sleep and valuables to steal. As he broke open a casket, part of the floor gave way and he fell into a lower chamber where several illegally buried bodies had been placed during a time in Edinburgh history when that sort of thing was common. Greyfriars Cemetary, in fact, has somewhere in the area of hundreds more bodies than marked graves.

The homeless man panicked when he found himself in a soup of mold and decayed flesh and surrounded by skeletal remains. He was able to find a secandary we out of the crypt and nearly ran headlong into the grounds keeper/guard of the cemetary. At this point, the homeless man was terrified from his ordeal in the mausoleum and the groundskeeper was a bit frightened by the noise he heard and the danger it might hold. They both saw each other and scared the devil out of each other. The homeless man was found later, blathering insanely.

Since that night, there have supposedly of been reports of malicious paranormal activity inside the mausoleums within the nearby prison gates. We were disappointed to encounter no such activity on our tour. While a couple people exited the mausoleum before the rest of us (it was crowded with everyone in there, the only real "scare" was a second masked tour employee jumping into the doorway and startling us. In addition, we got caught in the rain for part of the tour. I was glad I thought to bring my umbrella.

I have one final story before the pictues. This concerns a small dog.

A policeman named John Gray was buried in Greyfriars Cemetary in 1858. The story is that his faithful terrier (named Bobby) would sit on the grave each day, only leaving for dinner. The cemetary workers would shoo him out, but somehow he would get back in and be sitting atop the grave stone. Eventually, they simply let him stay. The dog continued to keep vigil until it died in 1872.

Of course, there are couple of problems with the story. For one thing, the John Gray that was a policeman and owned such a dog is actually buried elsewhere. It's not even the correct grave, unless the dog could read and simply made an honest mistake with the name.

Another problem with the story is the butcher shop that was right next to the cemetary. Apparently, sitting on top of the grave provided a good vantage point to see when scraps were illegally dumped into the graveyard.

Of course, the myth is far more pleasing than the story of a mooching dog that simply wanted lunch. As a result, you'll find not only a marked grave for Bobby the dog, but a statue of him out front of Bobby's Bar.

Following the tour, we found a pub, but hunger struck while we were there. Just down the block was a small take-out place that offered Fish and Chips, small pizzas and other items. My mother and sister headed out and snacked on pizza. When they came back, I opted to go out myself and found myself craving the garlic bread. I walked around the square as I ate it, then took a few pictures of the immediate area.

Here are some shots from the evening: