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our coach was stopped by the police for using the section through the most important part of the High Street. My driver was soundly told off for not observing the signs. We had none of us seen them! My visitors were aghast and made comments about it.
‘I was chairperson of the Edinburgh branch of the STGA in the early 1990s when we were consulted about walking groups in that part of the mile,’ Sue continued. ‘I remember suggesting that if space were provided on George IV Bridge and North or South Bridge for loading and unloading visitors then we would be able to walk that section. What happened – nothing. A city tour for visitors who usually only have one day here on a Scottish itinerary means that they are given an orientation tour in their own coach, taken to the castle and then are free to walk in the city for the rest of the day. How do they know where to go if they have not been shown around first? We know that open top buses can still use all the Royal Mile as they have registered a route. Johnston Terrace allows coaches to use the new bus lane. Why cannot private tour coaches continue to do an important job for visitors? They do not commit a noise nuisance. Perhaps I may suggest a solution? STGA Blue Badge guides can apply for an annual pass to take coaches round Holyrood Park upper road. Please can we apply for an annual individual pass to take tour coaches past St Giles and the City Chambers? There could be no objection to this as we are responsible, do an important job for the city, do not cause others to hear our commentary and we do not stop and hold up the rest of the traffic. It would be a simple thing to arrange. Please consider it.’ She eventually partially won her argument with coaches allowed to travel through the section before 10am.
Nan Welsh had already had an amazing life before she qualified as a guide in Glasgow in 1983. Born in Garnethill in Glasgow she grew up in a happy and close family. Although she left school at 15, she trained and qualified as a nurse, spending part of her career in the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow. She was an active pacifist all her life, and a member of CND. She worked with refugees, and spent time after World War Two working for the Red Cross in Berlin. For many years she also helped run holidays in Scotland for thalidomide children. She herself suffered, but recovered from, throat cancer. As a guide she mostly worked with German visitors.
Fionna Eden-Bushell (nee Carothers) spent her early childhood on Mull before going to school in England, but she always referred to herself as a Mull girl. Irene Stewart, who wrote Fionna’s obituary for the STGA, said this was very evident in the book she wrote; “A Grass Bank Beyond” about life in the Ross of Mull in the 1950s. ‘She was inspired to write her own book after discovering a manuscript written fifty years earlier by her mother Annabel which had lain undiscovered in a desk
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