Shadow Self at the Portal of Wallace’s Cave Roslin Glen opposite Rosslyn Chapel Scotland 1 of 3

Just one shadow partly dissolving and steadily scattering through the doorway. Light makes so much of our world and it sculpts our picture. Still we need shadow for depth and distinction to stand out and to see, even if momentarily, where the light has not reached.

Much less visited than Rosslyn Chapel on the opposite Western Bank of The North Esk river you will find The Wallace Cave. There are several Wallace Caves in Scotland. There is only one Wallace Cave in Roslin Glen. There are also caves under Hawthornden Castle. If you are going to Rosslyn Chapel I hope that you have a great visit and if you have a chance do walk in the Roslin Glen. The Castle and the Chapel retain the older name of Rosslyn and the contemporary village has the newer name of Roslin.

In the pictures uploaded to Flickr immediately before these two those two both the Focused and Focusless Fabulous Fungi a Miraculous Magical Mushroom were a joint effort. I managed in Manual Focus to capture an impressionistic rendering and a photographic view of the same rather large mushroom. My lighting expert is not on Flickr so I cannot link them locally and I do not have permission to link them further afield. He is a great companion to share a historically important cave with. Our focus on photography led us to moths and small gnats and large spiders with varying fungi and moss and lichen. The clean air just 8 miles from Edinburgh enables some fantastic growths that increase in quantity and size as you move further away from the city into more vibrant landscapes that support such greater growth. The size and vitality of the Mushroom was so unexpected that I have labelled it fabulous, miraculous and magical as it certainly appeared that way being the only such branching out extended growth from the rock face with roots nestled in a shallow crack.

The cave shows many pick marks from it having being extended and masoned sections where door and fittings have been fitted and broken away. The valley side opposite Rosslyn Chapel and Castle has a path way and viewing platforms cut into the cliff sides. The cave itself is not too large and the Mushroom as focus of attention and camera here looks quite unlikely to be natural and also at the same time possible so. It does appear like something brought in affixed and maybe even tended. There is a bed of rushes in the cave, changed annually and often dressed into the form of a sleeping figure. This Both Focused and Focusless Fabulous Fungi a Miraculous Magical Mushroom that proudly proclaims itself present and potent whilst discreetly declining any casual further investigation beyond speculation such as I have delivered here.

There is a legend of a Black Hen, don’t say Pullet, that is noted as confusing treasure seekers and grail hunters by digging holes to false terrain the site and to fill in half dug holes for when seekers return to complete their excavations and further still through special skill to carefully indicate the better and best grounds to explore through careful talon and beak soil manipulation. There are further tails of either this Black Hen, or of another such similar still don’t say Pullet, Black Hen, maybe there is just the one, or possibly there are a pair of magical soil shrouders at work? The other hen story relates to a treasure hidden under a stair. The exact stair can be correctly deduced in a manner not fully revealed within the story. Any stair testing and excavating can and will lead to the Black Hen II, this time the truth will not out*, moving the treasure when the excavators are in the right area and also the hen will bamboozle the grail hunters with special Holy Hen Acts that will confuse, strain, enrage and bring chaos to order and the ‘BH II’ wonder guard will clear up after the said chaos and restore all to proper order til the right, maybe even righteous, approach of the mythic legendary treasure grail hunter seekers who are destined to step on the right step at the right time in the right manner possibly with the left foot.

Please only read good humour and faithful following in my words above. I have followed signs to Rosslyn Chapel and parked when there were just a few spaces next to the old barn and byre. I have wandered in the beauty of the landscape and listened to the stories and here share some quickly to say that this is a place of beauty and of mystery, both of folly and of faith with a river bend bringing out rock inscribed from thousands of years ago to natural and extended caves, with castles and chapels, formerly and currently hosting services and battles til a part of the past seems to have been deeply woven here such that we choose to look at it again and again making pilgrimage and enacting rampage all engaged through marvellous mysteries and eldritch histories far beyond our fascination and into our fine fashioned fulgent fabricated fantasies.**

*Black Hen I also assured that the truth would not out, Black Hen II is not a fully fledged sequel as of course it could be one Hen, not a Pullet, successfully stealth working both grounds and stairs.

**Please do not test the Hen, or Hens, not Pullets, as you could be destroying a beautiful and historial protected place that is best left none Hen tested and none destroyed. Age, atmosphere and our antecedents have done more than enough destruction and also they had with them those that fought to give enough preservation and conservation too.

© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com

A Cave In Spain Contains the Earliest Known Depictions of Mushrooms by Brian Akers
www.mushroomthejournal.com/a-cave-in-spain-contains-the-e...

Welcome to Rosslyn Chapel
www.rosslynchapel.com/

Hawthornden Castle
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthornden_Castle

Alexander Nasmyth - Hawthornden Castle, near Edinburgh - Google Art Project
artsandculture.google.com/asset/hawthornden-castle-near-e...

Hawthornden Foundation Hawthornden Castle
www.hawthornden.org/hawthornden-castle

Hawthornden Foundation
www.hawthornden.org/

Wallace's Cave, cave and rock carvings SM6825
portal.historicenvironment.scot/apex/f?p=1505:300:::::VIE...

ROSLIN GLEN AND HAWTHORNDEN CASTLE GDL00327
portal.historicenvironment.scot/apex/f?p=1505:300:::::VIE...

Roslin Glen
Rosslyn Chapel Trust is responsible for the conservation and care of part of the picturesque landscape known as Roslin Glen, which is adjacent to Rosslyn Castle and Rosslyn Chapel.
www.rosslynchapel.com/about/roslin-glen/

Roslin Glen Country Park
www.midlothian.gov.uk/directory_record/171/roslin_glen_co...

Roslin Glen Country Park
www.rosslynchapel.com/about/roslin-glen/

Wallace's Cave, cave and rock carvings
canmore.org.uk/site/51808/wallaces-cave

Archaeology Notes
canmore.org.uk/event/712032

Roslin Glen And Hawthornden Castle
Date of Inclusion: 31/03/2001
1:20,000Map Scale:
Council: Midlothian
Designation Reference: GDL00327
portal.historicenvironment.scot/apex/f?p=PORTAL:document:...

ROSLIN GLEN AND HAWTHORNDEN CASTLE
GDL00327
portal-beta.historicenvironment.scot/apex/f?p=1505:300:::...

Gorton House Rock Carving(S) (Post Medieval)(Possible)
canmore.org.uk/site/51807/gorton-house

Taken in: UK / Scotland / Roslin (show map)

Taken on: December 8, 2024

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Focal Length:	18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO:	6400
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