Vin Diesel (aka) Sinclair creates visitor surge at Rosslyn Chapel

Hollywood star Vin Diesel at Rosslyn Chapel during a break from Fast and Furious 9.

During his time at the 15th century chapel in the village of Roslin in Midlothian , Diesel made a video outside the chapel, for his following on Instagram of over 57 million people worldwide.

In it he described the chapel as “sacred” and said he had chosen it for a meeting with Hollywood moguls to discuss the next Fast and Furious 10.

Diesel, whose real name is Mark Sinclair and whose mother has Scottish roots, had a private evening tour of the chapel which has been in the ownership of the St Clair family since its foundation in 1446.

Paying visitor for 2019 were just under 181,500, an increase of more than 3,750 on 2018.

Hollywood star Vin Diesel’s visit to Rosslyn Chapel while he was in Edinburgh filming ‘Fast and Furious 9’ helped boost visitor numbers, the ‘Da Vinci Code’ chapel’s director has said.

"Vin asked lots of questions about the chapel and its carvings. But for him it was definitely the Sinclair connection which really fascinated him." - Ian Gardner, director of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust

Ian Gardner, director of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, who took Diesel, Diesel’s sister on the tour of the chapel, said: “We are putting at least some of that increase in visitors down to interest after Vin Diesel’s visit and video on Instagram. He has a global following.

“A good number of our visitors that month mentioned that they had either seen the video, or press coverage around it, and we hope that more of his followers will be inspired to visit in the months ahead this year.“Vin asked me lots of questions about the chapel and its carvings. He was genuinely interested in the building. But for him it was definitely the Sinclair connection which really fascinated him.

“A number of his family had visited previously and had told him about it. So he knew about the Sinclair connection and we talked about a gathering a few years earlier of members of the Clan Sinclair.

Hogmanay 2019 opening and Susan's Calman's 'Secret Scotland'.

Mr Gardner added visitor numbers were also helped by the chapel opening on Hogmanay for the first time in 2019 and by appearing on Channel 5’s travel programme Secret Scotland hosted by comedian Susan Calman.