The Grail trail

According to legend, the Holy Grail could be hidden in Yorkshire, Glastonbury, in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland or Malta. Lindsay Jennings writes in The Northern Echo:

..Everyone loves a conspiracy theory - a smattering of myth mixed in with our latter day obsession for a good old detective story. But while we have as much chance of seeing Elvis in Wal-Mart as we do of seeing Marilyn singing All That Jazz in Chicago, what about the Holy Grail? More importantly, what about the possibility that it could be hidden in Yorkshire, buried in a field for centuries at the spot where the secretive order, the Knights Templar, is said to have built a stone church?

The legend of the grail varies greatly. To some, it is the sacred vessel Jesus filled with wine at the Last Supper and passed to his disciples. To others it is the cup Joseph of Arimathea used to collect the blood of a dying Christ before fleeing to Glastonbury where it was guarded by his descendants for centuries. To thousands of conspiracy theorists and fans of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, it is not a cup at all, but evidence that Jesus Christ had a child.

From the Grail's first appearance in an unfinished poem written by the Frenchman, Chretien de Troyes in 1180, some authors have emphasised the Christian element and others the mystical, with a smattering of Welsh, Celtic and Irish lore blended in. The grail could be at Rosslyn Chapel, in the Scottish borders, in Glastonbury, or even in the Cathedral of Valencia in Spain, which is home to the Holy Chalice, a 17cm-high cup made of red agate and dating between 4th century BC and 1st century AD. Yorkshire has not figured greatly on the grail radar - until now. .

..But Graham believes that, if the Holy Grail exists, then it will be under the site of the old Templar church, in a nearby field. We drive up to it. It is ordinary looking, a hill covered in grass and nothing more. "It's best to keep the exact location a secret because I know there are people out there who are obsessed with finding it," says Graham enigmatically. But this area has remained undetected to the modern day grail hunters so far. There is barely any mention of it on the internet, aside from the odd reference to its Templar connections. Graham says he heard about the grail theory through local people.

"There is a legend in these parts that it is here. One of the old guys, who died, talked about the field and what was there. You start to hear these stories and you wonder if there's something more to it." According to Graham, however, the land has never been excavated, and nor is it likely to be. "No one knows the history behind it. All we know is that it used to be the site of a Templar church on the outskirts of an empire on a pilgrim's route," he says.

We drive back to his home near Scarborough. Over tea, we talk about Dan Brown's book (pure fiction, he says) and the stonework incorporated into the modern church. Does he really believe the grail is in Yorkshire? He smiles. "Put it this way," he says. "As someone who's researched myths and legends, it's an ideal hiding place for the Holy Grail. I wouldn't be surprised if it was buried in the field. But then it could be in Malta..."