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Saturday, 21st November 2009

Da Vinci Code film profitable for Rosslyn

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Published Date:
18 January 2007
ROSSLYN Chapel, the iconic 560-year-old centrepiece of the blockbuster movie The Da Vinci Code, made a profit of more than £500,000 last year.
Latest accounts lodged with Companies House for the Rosslyn Chapel Trust Ltd reveal the beneficial effect publicity from the film generated for the chapel which is desperately in need of restoration.

The previous year, the charitable trust, formed 11 years ago, made just over £300,000.

Donations from third parties leapt noticeably from £9,000 in 2005 to £56,000 last year.

Meanwhile, the chapel, in Midlothian, saw visitors increase fivefold to more than 170,000 in 2006. Visits previously averaged 30,000 a year. The admission charge is £7 per visitor.

Colin Glynne-Percy, the trust's new director who took up his post on Monday, has indicated that profits will be reinvested in the £12m ongoing restoration programme including an extension to the existing visitor centre which is expected to open in 2008.

Mr Glynne-Percy, formerly development manager for the Edinburgh Park business development, has acknowledged improving the experience for visitors is vital to ensure income is safeguarded as interest in the chapel, generated by the film, may begin to wane.

The financial benefits of the film have also been experienced further afield.

It is estimated Scotland enjoyed £6 million worth of global publicity thanks to a unique deal between VisitScotland and Sony to promote the locations used in the production, based on Dan Brown's best-selling novel.

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1

TimW1234,

Ottawa, Canada 18/01/2007 09:52:14

I hope the increasing popularity of the Rosslyn Chapel does not go the way of the restored (1994) ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican city.

It has been reported that lineups to see this miracle of human endeavour in the service of God are a kilometre long and six deep and it takes four hours to get into the place.

Surely all those human exhalations with eventually eat away at the restored ceiling and Last Judgement wall and I sincerely do not know the solution.

Is it a pleasant experience to walk around the Rosslyn Chapel with perhaps hundreds of others, some with crying babes in prams, and the comments of the uninformed and downright ignorant ruining your wonder at this unique and strange place?

Sometimes over-popularity and exposure is the death knell for both people and places and it would be a shame if the Rosslyn Chapel becomes a cynosure of tourist types.

On the other hand, I am happy that funds have been raised to restore the chapel to its glorious and original state.

2

Gunga Din,

18/01/2007 13:45:20

Timothy - I used to work at the Roslin Institute long ago when it was known as the PRC. At that time , I often used to walk down to the Chapel , enter without a charge , wander around the grounds and near the edge of the glen and would be lucky if I saw one other person.If I did see another , it was usually a local. The castle was still an unrestored ruin way back then !
I had a look at the place last year , and was aghast at what I saw - an extended car and coach park , and the place crawling with tourists. Nice for the coffers , but it must surely be unpleasant for some of the locals.

3

Brian the Barbarian.,

city centre 18/01/2007 14:00:30

It's time they dug it up to find the baby Jesus that lives in a cave with the bald albino.


 

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