Certainly it is impossible to say whether Roslin or Rosslyn is "Correct"; it is
strictly what spelling is in vogue. After all, St. Clair is now spelled Sinclair
by most of the family.
Hal St.Clair
Niven Sinclair wrote:
> At 09:12 13/07/99 -0500, you wrote:
> >>At 21:29 12/07/99 -0400, Ward Ginn wrote:
> >>>Dear Niven,
> >>> I was in process of mailing copies of the castle print to Bradley
> >>>Sinclair Barker when I discovered that the Clan Sinclair web site uses the
> >>>spelling "Roslin" for the castle while in Robert Brydon's book it is
> spelled
> >>>"Rosslyn." I may be splitting hairs, but I would like to be as accurate as
> >>>possible.
> >
> >I've been going by a story I heard that the castle name was originally
> >spelled Roslin and the Rosslyn spelling was introduced later as a
> >conscious Gaelification of the name. I have no source to cite on
> >that, and I'll be happy to be corrected if I'm misremembering.
> >
> >>>...
> >
> >>Niven wrote:
> >>
> >>Dear Ward,
> >>
> >>Thank you for your interesting e-mail.
> >>
> >>Firstly, let me deal with the spelling of Rosslyn/Roslin.
> >>
> >>The earldom, the castle and the chapel are spelled Rosslyn whilst the
> >>village is spelt Roslin.
> >
> >That seems to straighten it out.
> >
> >>...
> >
> >>I would be delighted to read your friend's article which he wrote to
> >>accompany the 17th century print of the Chapel. What
> >>he saw was captured by Sir Walter Scott in the following verses from "The
> >>Dirge of Rosabelle":
> >
> >Which is quoted on the web pages for Rosslyn Chapel and Roslin Castle.
> >
> >>...
> >
> >>Here Sir Walter Scott uses the Roslin spelling throughout.
> >
> >Which reopens the question.
> >
> >>For those who are not familiar with the story of lovely Rosabelle, it
> >>should be explained that she lived at Dysart,
> >
> >I'll add that explanation to the web page.
> >
>
> In fact, Roslin has been spelt in many ways over the Centuries. Some of
> the barons of Rosslyn
> even signed their names as Roskeylyn. By and large, it was spelt
> phonetically and it is only
> since the Earldom was granted that the name of the earldom, the Castle and
> the Chapel became
> standardised as Rosslyn whilst the village remained simply Roslin. The
> pronunciation is the
> same. The meaning depends on whether you accept the Gaelic interpretation
> or the more esoteric
> idea of it stemming from 'rose-line'. As there was a Rosslyn long before
> the Sinclairs came to
> Scotland any departure from the Gaelic meaning must have been an
> adaptation rather than a
> accurate description of the scene where the North Esk River tumbles over a
> waterfall at a point
> known as Meg's chukkies - but that is another story which will have to
> await another day.
>
> Niven Sinclair
> >John S. Quarterman <jsq@mids.org>
> >[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@mids.org
> >[ To get off or on the list, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html
> >
>
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