Ashley Cowie

Ashley was brought up in the small fishing town of Wick in Caithness, on the north coast of Scotland. At the age of 17 he ventured south and studied photography and audio visual communications in Glasgow's MET College. Later he returned to the north and established a group of successful seafood trading businesses. In his spare time he explores and studies many of Scotland's most well known Neolithic landscapes and carved stones.

His studies into the carved symbols and geometric patterns which appear on the standing stones in Caithness and Orkney led him to establish a system of interpretation, which was released in 2003 in a lecture he delivered on the International Science Festival Circuit. Since then, he has tackled the meaning of ancient carvings and ciphers for historical societies and research groups around the globe.

In 2004 he was commissioned by the Scottish Knights Templar to analyze various carved symbols and architectural features in Scottish churches, chapels and abbeys. His study of a singular carving in Rosslyn Chapel which had baffled historians for centuries led to a ground breaking discovery which was published in his first book: The Rosslyn Matrix, 2006, in which he presents the argument that it may be the oldest carved map in Scotland.

Ashley is an elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the oldest antiquarian society in Scotland, founded in 1780 and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1783. He holds the rank of Knight Officer in a modern Order of Scottish Knights Templar, and maintains the position of Media Officer in another Chivalric Templar Order established in the 18th century. He is currently involved in several historical research projects.

For more information about The Rosslyn Templar visit www.rosslyntemplar.com