What are thought to be human remains have been discovered during renovations at Rosslyn Chapel.

Workmen installing a new heating system found the bones under a slab. The bones were found on 19 February and have been removed from the chapel and are being examined by archaeologists who will analyse them to establish their age and if they are human.

Lothian and Borders Police have confirmed that the bones had been found and that they are not treating their discovery as suspicious.

Rosslyn Chapel was begun in 1446 by William Sinclair (St. Clair) (? - 1484) and finished by his second son, Oliver. That the chapel was used as a family burial vault was revealed by a Masonic historian in The Genealogie of the Saintclaires or Rosslyn and The Rosslyn Hoax? both of which are the Grand Lodge of Scotland publications. These books explain that at least nine generations of the Sinclair family, and many others not directly part of the Sinclair family, were interred under the main floor of the chapel.

The chapel has frequently been linked with Scottish Freemasonry and the Roman Catholic Order of Knights Templar. Numerous speculative histories have claimed the chapel is the hiding place of the lost writings of Jesus Christ, the Holy Grail (that is the cup used by Christ at The Last Supper), the final resting place of the mummified head of Jesus Christ and, less spectacularly, the treasure of the Knights Templar. The book The Rosslyn Hoax? explores these subjects in considerable detail.

Rosslyn Chapel is presently being renovated using £7 million pounds of taxpayer's money and The Rosslyn Chapel Trust has recently appealed for additional funds.