IT was in this week of the year 1398 that a Scotsman discovered the American continent.

Now all you fans of Christopher Columbus need not panic because I am certainly not going to claim that the Americas were discovered by the Scots nearly a hundred years before the Italian-born explorer navigated his way across the Atlantic to claim he had found a route to the East Indies.

There is little doubt, however, that other Asians and Europeans had discovered North America thousands of years before Columbus. For the people we now correctly call native Americans were descended from the Asiatic people who walked across the land bridge that existed between what is now Siberia and Alaska no later than 15,000 years ago.

Other Europeans got there even before the Scots allegedly did. Between 800 and 1100AD, the Vikings visited what is now Newfoundland in Canada. They had certainly settled in Greenland and given their roving nature, the Vikings travelled south, knowing from their far flung travellers that there was a huge land mass awaiting them. At L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland there are remains of a Norse settlement and it is so highly regarded as an archaeological treasure that it has been designated a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Yet according to myth, a Scottish nobleman, Henry St Clair or Sinclair, the First Earl of Orkney, sailed to Greenland and then North America. The date of his arrival in the New World is traditionally given as June 2, 1398, some 623 years ago this week.

Why isn’t every Scot celebrating his magnificent achievement? Simple – it didn’t happen.

Here’s the story “as it’s telt”, as they say. Henry St Clair was born around 1345 as the son of William St Clair, Lord of Roslin, and his wife Isabella of Strathearn, who was the daughter of Malise or Maol Ísa, Jarl (or earl) of Orkney which at that time belonged to Norway. Henry’s grandson would be William St Clair, builder of Rosslyn Chapel.

We know little about Henry’s life or death but we do know he was made Earl of Orkney by Norway’s King Haakon VI in 1379. As is common with any history of Scotland and the Scots at that time, much has been lost and we simply do not know the facts of Henry’s life. We do not even know that date of his death, but can be confident he was killed while defending Orkney against English raiders.

His grandson William’s work, the St Clair Diploma states: “...he retirit to the parts of Orchadie and josit them to the latter tyme of his life, and deit Erile of Orchadie, and for the defence of the country was slain there cruellie by his enemiis.”

There is certainly no contemporaneous written evidence that Henry was a major explorer, and while he was certainly capable of putting ships to sea and sailing or even captaining them, there is no certain evidence that he visited Greenland never mind the Americas.

What did happen was that in 1784, the naturalist and history writer Johann Reinhold Forster, Polish-born but of Scottish descent, claimed that St Clair was the solution to a considerable mystery. Forster said that Henry was the Prince Zichmni described in letters by the Zeno brothers from Venice who travelled across the North Atlantic in the late 1390s. According to the letters, Zichmni was in command and went ashore, meeting the natives and staying for a year.

That takes a big leap of imagination: the Zeno letters were “found” early in the 16th century and are generally believed to have been forged by a descendant of the brothers. The problem is that Henry was never a Prince, Zichmni cannot be identified as St Clair, and many of the “facts” in the letters are just simply wrong, such as the names and locations of islands.

The “St Clair as Zichmni” theory has been taken up by numerous authors over the years, usually linked to Rosslyn Chapel’s undoubted mysteries, one of which is supposed to be the clincher that the St Clair family knew all about the Americas.

For carvings in the Chapel are claimed to show maize, a crop that existed only in the Americas. Whether they are maize or aloe as some claim is a moot point – there is no evidence whatsoever linking the carvings to Henry St Clair.

If true, Henry’s discovery story would be a huge fillip for the Scottish tourist industry, especially for Rosslyn Chapel. Yet it is the Chapel’s own experts who debunk the myth of Henry St Clair, and for what it’s worth I agree with them.

This is what Rose McCandless and Fiona Rogan have published at the conclusion of their very convincing study on the Rosslyn Chapel website:

“Here at Rosslyn Chapel we have examined the story in detail over a 10-year period. We have read widely all the various interpretations. We have seen that most writers have tended to start from a position of believing or not believing, and from there try to make the evidence fit their theory. We have tried to look objectively, without prejudice.

“Our conclusion is that Sir Henry St Clair would certainly have been capable of voyaging to Greenland and Iceland, and possibly further west. There is no evidence that he did, and we can find no evidence that he is the Zichmni in the story. Even if he were, the narrative takes him to Greenland and no further.”

Perhaps ever so slightly hedging their bets, the Rosslyn Chapel’s experts conclude: “It’s not impossible that people in Sir Henry’s employ went exploring further afield.

“We fully expect people to argue and write about this fabled voyage for many years to come, and our guides at Rosslyn Chapel will continue to enjoy telling it to visitors from all around the world.”