NWR’s real women take a lockdown tour of Edinburgh

In the company of 400 members, NWR Communications Coordinator Helen Page recently took a virtual walk with Paul, an Invisible Cities guide, to learn about the Real Women of Edinburgh. Here, she shares her experiences.

Invisible Cities is a social enterprise that trains people who have experienced homelessness to become walking tour guides. NWR was delighted to take a tour of Edinburgh with them in April, and members will have the opportunity to take several more tours with Invisible Cities over the coming months. Normally in-person, the tours have been adjusted in response to Covid-19 restrictions to enable participants to walk with their guides without the need to visit locations.

Paul, our guide for the Real Women of Edinburgh tour, artfully combined sharing historical facts and topical information, with humour – and holding a camera phone – as he escorted us through the streets of Scotland’s capital. He was friendly, informative and, it would appear, undaunted leading our tour group of over 400 women!

We began at Maggie Dickson’s pub on Grassmarket, where Paul told us Maggie’s story of surviving hanging in 1724 following her conviction under the Concealment of Pregnancy Act, after her new-born baby was found dead. She lived on for another 40 years and became a celebrated figure known as Half-Hangit Maggie.

For me, several of the stories triggered reflection on women’s treatment by the authorities and under the law, particularly that of Jessie King who, in 1889, was the last woman executed in Edinburgh. Jessie was found guilty of murder, but now her conviction would be considered unsafe by many.

Paul’s account of body snatchers Helen Torrence and Jean Waldie’s actions was shocking. The duo, who were convicted of murder and hanged in the 1750s, predated Burke and Hare. We also heard about the medical pioneer and suffrage campaigner, Elsie Inglis, and unbelievably how her valiant work was not always welcomed.

As well as tales about the city’s women, Paul shared lots of facts about Edinburgh and its other residents. Before the tour, I hadn’t known Edinburgh Castle was the inspiration for The Wizard of Oz’s Emerald City. We were shown John Knox’s house and, of course, visited the monument to Greyfriars Bobby.

No visit to Edinburgh and guide to its women inhabitants would be complete without reference to JK Rowling. The tour was peppered with mentions of buildings, locations and engravings that are understood to have influenced the Harry Potter books, and we were taken to The Elephant House café at George IV Bridge to see where Rowling spent time writing.

The tour also included an introduction to the Grassmarket Community Project which offers support to vulnerable people dealing with multiple complex issues including homelessness, mental and physical health problems and substance abuse.

Coming to an end at the bottom of the Royal Mile, unencumbered by traffic and seeing very few other pedestrians, it felt like a huge treat to have left home under Paul’s guidance. It was a pleasure to meet him and hear his tales about Edinburgh and its women.

Since Covid, NWR has adjusted its programme to offer online activities, which are now set to continue for the foreseeable future, and will include more outings with Invisible Cities. The next one will be a walk around York on 13 July, telling the story of Guy Fawkes. You can see the full list of NWR talks, and catch up on previous ones, in the members’ area of the website: https://www.nwr.org.uk/resources/ quizzes-and-talks Book for The Story of Guy Fawkes: https://www.eventstop.co.uk/event/4143/ nwr_guy_fawkes#/ Find out more about Invisible Cities: https://invisible-cities.org/