Got an interest in tracking down the Holy Grail? If so, you may already know the Grail's rumoured home is here in Edinburgh. And, what's more, you'll be pleased to learn this resting place is getting the biggest revamp in its 500-year history. A £13m restoration project is underway at Edinburgh's Rosslyn Chapel, famed for its reputed links to the Knights Templar and Holy Grail. If nothing else, the project is proof of how five centuries of wear and tear can take their toll on even the best-connected of buildings. But don't worry, the building will remain open to visitors while work - due to complete in July 2010 - takes place.

When Rosslyn Chapel featured in the movie The Da Vinci Code, visitor numbers to the medieval church rose more than four-fold. They soared from around 40,000 to more than 175,000, following the film's release. Tales of mysterious links to age-old conspiracies involving Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene have drawn coach-loads of visitors to the fifteenth century place of worship, which perches at the top of a steep, wooded glen by the village of Roslin.

After being catapulted to international fame earlier this decade, the chapel is entering another new phase in its history. Renovation work on the medieval building began earlier this year; in December the chapel gets a brand-new roof which will replace its current unsightly scaffolding and steel canopy. A brand-new new visitor centre for the chapel will open in April 2010; restoration work has already begun on the stained glass windows and stone work.

Although a visit to Rosslyn Chapel has become almost essential for anyone visiting Edinburgh, the building has suffered from neglect in recent years. A major 1950s revamp left the building in poor condition, something the current project is looking to remedy. The chapel is in such bad shape that when it featured in The Da Vinci Code, a model of it had to be used for one scene.

Located six miles south of Edinburgh, Rosslyn Chapel was founded in 1446 by a local nobleman who commissioned the best stonemasons of the day to decorate the interior with religious, masonic and pagan symbols of great complexity. Since then, the chapel has attracted symbologists, freemasons, grail hunters, pagans and anybody with an interest in stone carving.

Legend suggests the chapel is the last resting place of the Holy Grail, and that the chapel's coded symbols hide its whereabouts.

While building work goes on, you might not get a full view of the chapel's coded symbols but, on a more prosaic note, there is every possibility that you might get the chance to see a few modern stonemasons at work. So don't be put off from a visit by news of the renovation.

Rosslyn Chapel, Roslin, Midlothian, EH 25 9PU, 0131 440 2159

Adults £7.50, children under 16 (accompanied by families) go free.

Check the Rosslyn Chapel website for opening times.

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