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ARN - The
Knight Templar
The film about Arn and Cecilia is set in Sweden as
well as the Middle East, and offers a rich gallery
of brave knights, powerful queens and treacherous
kings. It is a tale of war and intrigue, friendship
and betrayal, but also a love story. Arn Magnussson
is born in 1150 on Arnas farm in West Gothia in the
western part of Sweden. He grows up to become an
educated young man and a skilled swordsman. He meets
Cecilia, the love of his life, but a cruel and
jealous world forces them apart. Cecilia is
imprisoned in a monastery and Arn is sent away as a
Knight Templar to the Holy Land, where war is raging
between Christians and Muslims. They both have to
fight to survive, they have to learn how to confront
evil and overcome physical hardship. Their painful
separation causes their faith in God and his
goodness to waver – though not their faith in each
other and their confidence that they will one day be
reunited. When Arn returns home he has to fight for
his love and what has become his life’s mission: to
unite Sweden into one kingdom.
MUCH OF THE FILMING WAS DONE IN SCOTLAND;
Rosslyn Chapel, Craigmillar Castle, Hopetoun House
Estate, we can show you much more of the Templars
here in Scotland, just tell us how many days you
wish to be here! We will do the rest.
arn@mcleanscotland.com
See also;
KNIGHT TEMPLAR
TOUR IN SCOTLAND
Craigmillar Castle lies just three miles
south east of the centre of Edinburgh. Castle is
simply one of the most completely preserved medieval
castles in Scotland. Craigmillar began life as the
tower house that still forms the core of the castle.
This was constructed around 1400, probably by Sir
George Preston, one of a line of Prestons who played
a large part in civic life in Edinburgh over several
hundred years. It was his grandson Sir William
Preston who, in the 1440s, was responsible for
Craigmillar's most notable feature. He added the
curtain wall that surrounds the tower house on three
sides and creates the inner courtyard. In about 1510
Sir Simon Preston added a further layer of
enclosure, erecting outer walls to form the outer
yard and east and west gardens. Craigmillar Castle
was captured by the English in May 1544 with its
laird (another) Sir Simon Preston, who was also
Provost of Edinburgh at the time. A programme of
rebuilding in the 1550s included the construction of
a new range of buildings along the east side of the
inner courtyard. This was designed to provide more
modern and spacious accommodation than was available
in the tower house. It was probably in this new east
range that Mary Queen of Scots stayed in September
1563 and again in December 1566. It was during her
second stay that conspirators agreed the "Craigmillar
Bond": the plot to kill Mary'sdissolute husband Lord
Darnley. Craigmillar Castle was passed into state
care in 1946. Today it is cared for by Historic
Scotland. But for everyone whose first instinct on
entering a castle is to see how high they can climb,
Craigmillar's high point, literally, is the roof of
the tower house. From here you get stunning views in
all directions. Edinburgh Castle lies on the skyline
to the north west, while to the north it is
Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat which command
attention. Closer at hand is the new housing
development helping transform Craigmillar from what
was once one of Edinburgh's less sought after areas.
Rosslyn castle occupying the high ground
of the promontory in what would have been a
wonderful defensive site until the invention of
cannons made it vulnerable to fire from the all too
nearby higher ground. Within the castle is a house
built out of its ruins, now available for holiday
lets in a location that can justly be described as
unique. The views of the castle from the approach,
the bridge and the courtyard are striking: yet to
appreciate it fully you need to descend from the
approach road and pass under the bridge. Here a path
takes you down towards the river, and allows you to
appreciate the full five storeys or more of
structure still standing when viewed from here. The
first stone castle to be built on this site arrived
in 1304, when the St Clair family sought to
strengthen their hold on their estates in the area.
The castle was continuously developed over the
following three centuries and frequently repaired
following assorted mishaps. These include an
accidental fire in 1447 that destroyed much of the
building; a non-accidental fire when the castle was
attacked by English troops under the Earl of
Hertford in 1544; and its final demise as a castle
when attacked by Cromwell's troops under General
Monck in 1651. By that time the attackers could use
cannons sited on higher ground to the north to
negate the strength of the castle itself. The family
built for themselves a mansion within the shell of
the structure, occupying the top two storeys of the
five available in the east range of the castle. Even
this was attacked, by a mob from Edinburgh in 1688
trying to destroy "popery". The house was later
repaired. Of course, this wouldn't be Rosslyn if it
didn't have its fair share of myths and legends. The
castle is said to be home to a sleeping lady who
will one day awake and show the whereabouts of a
fabulous treasure buried deep within its vaults.
When this happens, the castle will again rise from
its ruins. A similar story of treasure surrounds the
visit to Rosslyn Castle of a Count Poli from Italy
in 1834, allegedly a descendant of the last Provost
of Rosslyn Chapel who had been forced to flee to
Italy after the Reformation of 1560. It is said
that, following instructions written by his
ancestor, he discovered the hiding place within the
castle vaults of a hoard of manuscripts and books,
hidden during the Reformation. It is also said he
took many back to Italy with him, including a copy
of a Latin history of Scotland from the beginning of
the world until 1535, which is now said to be in the
Vatican Library.
VILLAGE OF TEMPLE Friday 13 October, 1307, is
a date that echoes across history, spawning a
deep-seated superstition about any Friday 13th. On
that day, Philip IV, King of France, arrested
hundreds of Knights Templar in France. Philip had
been out to get the Templars since 1302. This had
nothing to do with the global mythology that has
since grown up around the Knights Templar, and it
especially had nothing to do with the Holy Grail: it
was simply that, as one of the richest organisations
in Europe, the Templars had turned down a demand
from Philip for a loan he needed to further his
military adventures. His campaign against the
Templars extended to kidnapping Pope Boniface VIII
in September 1303, and possibly poisoning his
successor, Benedict XI in July 1304. In 1305 Philip
finally got a Pope who would see things his way,
when a Frenchman who had been a childhood friend
became Pope Clement V. By 13 October 1307 Philip
felt his position was strong enough for him to move
against the Templars in France, arresting their
members and seizing their treasury and assets.
Confessions of heresy and a wide range of other
invented crimes forced out of the arrested French
Templars gave Philip IV the ammunition he needed to
try to persuade Pope Clement V that the Order should
be suppressed worldwide. Clement V finally succumbed
to the pressure, and issued an Edict to dissolve the
Templars after the Council of Vienna in 1312.
Templar properties and assets in countries
previously sympathetic to them were seized, in many
cases being transferred to the Knights Hospitaller
of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. At the same
time, many Knights Templar who had not already gone
to ground were put on trial and executed. It had
taken ten years for Philip to get even with the
Templars, but get even he certainly had. In
Scotland, King Robert the Bruce, himself under
excommunication from the Church after his murder of
the Red Comyn, was less inclined than most European
monarchs to rigorously enforce all aspects of the
Papal Edict dissolving the Templars. As elsewhere,
their Scottish lands and properties were transferred
to the Knights of St John, but there was little
persecution of individual members of the Order in
Scotland, and many Knights Templar were allowed
simply to become Knights of St John.
Since they had first been established in Scotland by
David I in 1153, the main Scottish base of the
Knights Templar had been 15 miles south of Edinburgh
at a place called Balantradoch. Here they had a
monastery on the east bank of the River South Esk.
In 1312 ownership of the monastery was transferred
to the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John,
and became part of the property they administered
from their Scottish headquarters at Torphichen
Preceptory near Linlithgow.
During the 1500s Balantradoch came to be
known as Temple, reflecting its earlier history.
Today's Temple is a small residential village with
little in the way of local services, but a great
deal of charm. The village itself comprises a single
street climbing out of the valley of the River South
Esk. Most of what you see today dates back to the
1700s or since. The old historical and
ecclesiastical core of the village now lies
separated from it, below in the river valley. Here
you find the ruin of the Old Parish Church. It's
tempting to think of this as part of the Templar
monastery from the 1100s, but it seems much more
likely to have been built in the 1300s by the
Knights of St John: though probably reusing elements
of an earlier Templar church. Opposite the Old
Parish Church is Shillinghill, built in 1832 as a
replacement for the old church, but in more recent
times itself converted to residential use. To the
east of the Old Parish Church is what looks like it
might have once been a mill building, but in fact
turns out to have been built as the manse for the
1832 church, on part of the original foundations of
the cloister of the Templar monastery. The
churchyard surrounding the Old Parish Church is home
to a number of fascinating headstones, perhaps the
most striking being that for John Craig, a local
farmer who died in 1742. He is shown in his best
clothing and with his children. Given the fantastic
legends that now surround everything to do with the
Knights Templar, it is surprising that the only
place in Scotland with strong and unambiguous links
to the Order is not better known. The Old Parish
Church is certainly worth a visit, with a beautiful
location and just enough of a sense of mystery to
get the imagination going. But if you do visit, bear
in mind that parking in the lower part of the
village is virtually impossible: you should park in
Temple's Main Street and walk down the hill to the
church.
Kilmory Knap Chapel A small medieval
chapel with a collection of typical West Highland
grave slabs and some early medieval sculpture. In
the church is Macmillan’s Cross, a splendid piece of
medieval carving.
Location On the shore between Loch Sween and
Loch Caolisport in South Knapdale off the B8025
and much much more to interest Templar Knight
enthusiasts!
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