About 1118 AD the Templars were established to protect the Christian Pilgrims as they travelled to the Holy Land in Jerusalem.

The Preceptory of Balantrodach was built around 1129, about 10 miles south of Edinburgh in Scotland, almost at the start of the Knights Templar movement, and was established on one of the first pieces of land to be granted to the movement outside of the Holy Land.

For whatever reason, about 1307, King Phillip "the Fair" of France, with the full backing of the then Pope (Pope Clement V), made The Suppression Order. The intention of this order was to exterminate by death The Knights Templar throughout the (known) World.

However, at this time the country of Scotland had been excommunicated from the Catholic Church because its king, Robert The Bruce, had committed murder (of John "the Red" Comyn) inside a church.

Thus Scotland ignored the Papel Decree, and the country was seen by the Knights Templar as, perhaps, a place of refuge to which they could retreat. (At this time The Catholic Church reigned supreme among Christian religions, Protestantism did not exist for about another 150-200 years.)

Fortunate also was the fact that King Robert The Bruce needed the services of warriors to help him in his forthcoming battles against the English (Bannockburn was in 1314).

The remains of the building present on the site today date from sometime in this early 14th century period. It seems likely that the current ruins of Balantrodach don't correspond to the initial church erected by the Templars; the church was rebuilt by the Hospitallers during the 14th century.

Rosslyn Chapel, about 4 miles from this site, was founded in Roslin in 1446...about 130 years after the Knights Templar began to be persecuted by King Phillip "the Fair" of France and Pope Clement V.