Named after the village of Roslin in Midlothian, south of Edinburgh, known for Rosslyn Chapel and Rosslyn Castle (note the different spellings, Roslyn is a third historical spelling). Roslin was of interest to Walter Scott, both for the beauty of its glen and for the history of its antiquities. Hawthornden Castle is also situated on the edge of Roslin Glen, one mile downstream. This landscape is described in Canto VI of Scott's poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805):
O'er Roslin all that dreary night A wondrous blaze was seen to gleam; 'Twas broader than the watch-fire's light, And redder than the bright moonbeam. It glar'd on Roslin's castled rock, It ruddied all the copse wood glen; 'Twas seen from Dryden's groves of oak And seen from cavern'd Hawthorn-den. Seem'd all on fire that chapel proud, Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffin'd lie, Each Baron, for a sable shroud, Sheath'd in his iron panoply.
Roslin has attracted numerous other poets, writers and artists over the centuries, including Ben Jonson, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, Robert Burns, Dorothy and William Wordsworth, Lord George Byron and JMW Turner. Rosslyn Chapel also featured in Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code (2003). See also Hawthornden Road / Way.
Roslyn Street runs parallel to Rosebery Road. It used to open onto London Road at its northern end, but this is now a cul-de-sac. Roslyn Street National School, later Roslyn Street Junior Primary School, was here c. 1897-1955.
The minutes of the Town Improvement Committee of Belfast Corporation on 25 April 1894 indicate the naming of 3 streets at My Lady’s Road and Ravenhill Avenue: Roseberry Road, Roslyn Street and London Road.
PT, Mar 2025.