Many have proposed this cave to be a monument for future Knights, imparting symbolic knowledge of their story and the location of Jesus’s child. Why, then, would pagan imagery be included in much of the cave’s carvings? Sheela-na-gig, a fertility symbol common in different parts of the United Kingdom, naked and displaying large, exaggerated vulvas, are carved alongside well known saints, such as St. Catherine of Alexandria. Her martyrdom story displayed, but without context, feels uniquely confusing juxtaposed with such graphic pagan depictions.
Peter T. Houldcroft, an 83 year old man who has been caretaker of the cave for almost two decade, holds nothing back in his own controversial opinions regarding the purpose of the cave and its connection to the Knight’s Templar:
“The secret of the Holy Grail can be found in Royston Cave…People often ask me about the whereabouts of the Holy Grail and have many different ideas about what the Holy Grail is – be it an artefact or a cup or a bowl. But the Holy Grail is the bloodline of Jesus Christ and carvings in Royston Cave show that the Knights Templar believed in this secret heresy and offered prayers to Jesus’s offspring.”
When one researches the history of the Knight’s Templar, we are told a story of a pious and exemplary set of warriors, all vowing to protect Christianity against its warring, criminal opposition. We are told the Knight’s downfall was due to a shattering financial burden placed on the French King’s shoulders, and this burden led to the imprisonment and death of the once revealed Knights members. Many believe in an alternative and untold history involving deceit and suppression of a knowledge that would shatter the Church’s image of Christ they had worked tirelessly to build.
With conflicting timelines, imagery, and purpose, historians are unable to provide the innately curious public with satisfactory information regarding this mysterious cave. The general consensus is that it was created in the 15th or 16th centuries and was used as a dwelling space for various people, who, slightly blinded by the cave’s darkness, found themselves enveloped by slight delirium, producing incongruous images carved along the cave’s walls.
This official explanation is unsatisfactory to many who hold firm beliefs of the cave’s connection to the Knight’s Templar. Until historians are able to produce absolute proof one way or the other, the cave will continue to inspire amateur sleuths, conspiracy theorists, and literary artists to produce some of the most entertaining theories regarding this medieval order of Knights and the knowledge of Jeusus they may have possessed.