Walk Talk Tours Blog

St Andrew's Day 'Do' a welcome distraction?

2009-11-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

The Scottish capital will play host to an array of activities over the weekend of November 28 - 29. And then again on St Andrew's Day itself, Monday, November 30. This year has been the year of Homecoming Scotland 2009, where the country has tried to attract visitors from around the globe with a series of Scottish themed activities.

The saga of Edinburgh's new tram system rumbles on. The 18km stretch of track from Edinburgh Airport to New Haven via Leith was originally planned to open next year, but it is not now scheduled to begin operating until February 2012 and be a minimum of £33m over budget. Richard Jeffrey, the Chief Executive of Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE) told the Sunday Herald "I am working to try and deliver this project for £545m. I think if we do that it will be a great success."

Unfortunately, one of the other great building projects in the Scottish capital of the last decade, the new Parliament at the foot of the Royal Mile was also embroiled in controversy; it was £40m over budget and took three years longer than planned to complete. The complex designed by the late Enric Miralles is full of interesting shapes, which capture the photographer's eye - even on a grey day. (See picture below).

Staff at the Royal Bank of Scotland - which has its Headquarters in Edinburgh - are braced for job losses after it was announced last week that nearly 320 branches will have to be sold.

Edinburgh needs revenue from tourists vacationing, or attending Festivals or sporting fixtures more than ever. There is a flexible and affordable way to get a handle on Edinburgh's rich heritage. Visitors can download two Walk Talk Tour audio walking tours of the Edinburgh to their iPhone, MP3 player, iPod or mobile phone.

Both The Royal Mile & More and the Old and New Towns audio walking tours begin outside Edinburgh Castle, the setting for a fireworks display which will bring the curtain down on the St Andrew's Day festivities. Both tours can be completed in two hours, though listeners have the freedom to stop, start and resume their tour as they wish. To hear a short audio sample from the Old and New Towns tour please click here.

Buy any Walk Talk Tour and get a second one free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Pictured top: a pavement artist at work on the Royal Mile this August.

The Houses of Parliament in Numbers

2009-11-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

645 - The number of Members of Parliament (MPs) in the elected House of Commons.

15 - The number of political parties represented in the House of Commons. Five parties have a single representative. Labour currently have 349 MPs, the Conservatives have 193 and the Liberal Democrats have 63.

1605 - The year in which a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament was thwarted.

36 - The number of barrels of gunpowder that one of the conpirators, Guy Fawkes, was said to have been discovered with, by a party searching the cellars beneath Parliament late in the evening of November 4, 1605.

1834 - The year in which much of the Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire.

1870 - The year in which the new Palace of Westminster was completed. Neither Charles Barry, the architect responsible for the Gothic building, or Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the man who designed much of the Palace's interior, lived to see the completion of the Houses of Parliament.

1918 - The year in which women who met a property criteria were allowed to vote. Ten years later, the Equal Franchise Act (1928), finally gave women the same voting rights as men.

737 - The number of members of the House of Lords, the Upper Chamber.

150 - The number of years since Big Ben, the great bell, in St Stephen's Tower first came into operation. The official Parliament website (parliament.uk) reports that: "The Great Clock started on 31 May, the Great Bell’s strikes were heard for the first time on 11 July and the quarter bells first chimed on 7 September."

1949 - The year in which a flock of birds landed on the minute hand of Big Ben, causing the great timepiece to lose five minutes!

Visitors to London can discover more about the new Palace of Westminster, as the Houses of Parliament is officially known, with the Palace Trail audio guide. Download and away you go. To hear a short extract from the tour please click here.

5 - The number of Walk Talk Tour audio walking tours of London. All five London tours are available in French, German and Spanish.

Buy any Walk Talk Tour and get a second one free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Manchester receives heritage funding boost

2009-11-02T06:36:00.000-08:00

Marketing Manchester will be allocated funds to further promote the city's industrial heritage, specifically the activities undertaken by Industrial Powerhouse. The Northwest European Regional Development Fund Programme will provide £2.4m funding and Crain's Manchester Business reports, in a piece retrieved today, that "the other half of the money will be made up of match funding from the region's tourist boards, museums and attractions."

Funding will also be made available for Cumbria to promote the Adevnture Capital theme and Visit Chester and Cheshire to further develop and publicise its Gardens of Distinction campaign.

Visitors to Manchester can get hear how the world's first industrial city first made its mark - and continues to do so - on the wider world with the Manchester: Then & Now, Walk Talk Tour.

The city was dubbed 'Cottonopolis' in the nineteenth century on account of the number of cotton mills and in the city. The Royal Exchange was the hub of the world's textile trade as listeners to the tour will discover. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

The Museum of Science and Industry has a vast collection of exhibits from the Industrial Age.

The city has a range of cultural gems - which are often overlooked or ignored. The neo-Gothic John Rylands Library on Deansgate contains the oldest known piece of the New Testament, the St John's Fragment (which is believed to date from the second century AD).

The 2.4 mile (3.8km) Walk Talk Tour of Manchester is composed of commentary points. The walking tour begins outside Manchester Town Hall and ends in Cathedral Gardens. Listeners hear about a particular attraction and then receive instructions outlining how to reach the next commentary point. Listeners have the freedom to stop, start and listen again to any part of their commentary. The tour comes complete with a free downloadable map for listeners to print out.

Buy any Walk Talk Tour and get a second one free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Visitors without the wherewithal to download the Walk Talk Tour of Manchester can hire it from the city's Visitor Information Centre on Lloyd Street, just off St Peter's Square.

Edinburgh Icons coming to a building near YOU

2009-10-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

Some of the Scottish capital's most iconic monuments and buildings will be projected onto buildings in Northern English cities, including Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds. The move is said to have been inspired by FHM magazine's decision to project a 100ft image of a naked Gail Porter onto the Houses of Parliament ten years ago.

A spokeswoman for Edinburgh Sparkles the company organising the campaign told The Scotsman that "There's never been any kind of co-ordinated campaign like this before and Edinburgh hasn't promoted itself properly to other parts of the country before now."

The newspaper notes that: "Official permission does not need to be sought to use projections."

Shops in the Scottish capital are being urged to remain open until 21:00 on November 26 - the day the city's Christmas Markets, outdoor ice rink and big wheel are due to open. City grandees hope that the campaign will entice visitors from around the UK and Scots disenchanted by the protracted tram works in the capital.

Visitors can enjoy the best of the Scottish capital with two audio downloadable walking tours which listeners can hear via their iPhone, MP3 player, cell phone or iPod. Listeners will hear about some of the heroes, villains and interesting characters that have shaped the Scottish capital down the years. Both tours begins outside Edinburgh Castle featured top.

Both WalkTalk Tour Edinburgh walking tours are narrated by Scotsman Graeme Mackenzie. To hear a short audio sample from the Royal Mile & More tour please click here. Both tours are downloadable in MP3 format and can be completed in two hours, though listeners have the freedom to take as long as they wish to take in the sights of the city.

Listeners to the Old and New Towns Edinburgh walking tour will hear about dubious goings on, on the Grassmarket, the Scott Monument, the young architect who designed the first part of the city's New Town. And the city's Assembly Rooms and Charlotte Square - now home to the official residence of Scotland's First Minister, Bute House (pictured above) and a recreated Georgian House.

Purchase any Walk Talk Tour and get a second one free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Pink Look gives Shambles' Visitors the Blues

2009-10-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

Shop owners on the most famous street in the historic city of York have removed pink bunting installed to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Visitors complained that the bunting spoiled their attempts to photograph the street.

The above photograph was taken by Odddutch and was uploaded to Flickr on September 20, 2007. To view his photostream on Flickr please click here

One of the retailers involved in the campaign, Sarah Wells, the owner of the Elizabeth Wells lingerie shop told the York Press that: "It is a shame that people can’t get behind a charity that funds research into a disease that will touch us all in one way during our lives. However, it hasn’t stopped us from supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we’re all doing our best to pink up the street at window level."

There are fourteen shops which will be displaying hidden pink ribbons in their windows. Shoppers who make a donation to the Breast Cancer Campaign can pick up an entry from any of the participating shops and win a chance to be entered in a prize draw.

In addition, this Thursday, Elizabeth Wells will be donating ten per cent of all proceeds of a pink shopping evening to the Breast Cancer Campaign (16:00 - 19:00). The shop is located at 23 Shambles.

Follow Elizabeth Wells @ElizabethWells on Twitter.

Visitors can hear about the rich heritage of the Shambles with the Best of York audio tour guide. The Shambles is one of the best preserved Medieval thoroughfares in Europe. It was mentioned in the Doomsday Book in 1086 and most of its structures date from the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Today, the Shambles link King’s Square and Pavement.

The Best of York tour is composed of commentary points (like tracks on a CD or iTunes album). Listeners hear about attractions and then receive instructions outlining how to get to the next commentary point. Each tour comes with a free downloadable map, too.

Visitors without the wherewithal to download the tour can hire it on a preloaded MP3 player from the cities two Tourist Information Centres.

Get under the skin of London

2009-10-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

The appearance of Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party (BNP), on BBC One's Question Time predictably caused a storm of controversy. I find his views deplorable - but this is not another post about the BNP and BBC One's Question Time.

In the past, the term 'foreigner' was applied to an Outsider - non-native inhabitant of a town - who wished to sell their wares at market away from their home town or city. From the early fourteenth century 'Foreigners', or non-Londoners, were compelled to sell poultry from Leadenhall Street. By the end of the fourteenth century 'Foreigners' selling cheeses were made to sell their produce from the market on the Street too.

Today, a foreigner is typically seen as someone who is of another country; the word can also be applied to someone who feels that they're an outsider.

Much of the Market on Leadenhall Street was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Horace Jones designed today's Leadenhall Market which opened back in 1881.

London has always embraced people from different countries. Over 300 languages are currently spoken in London's schools. English, French, German and Spanish speaking visitors can get the lowdon on the capital's heritage with five audio downloadable tours of London. To hear an audio sample from the City & South Bank Circular audio walking tour please click here.

Hear how one lucky gander escaped the chop and how part of the market was transformed into Diagon Alley, in the movie version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, or the Sorceror's Stone, as it is known in North America.

Each tour - with the exception of the longer City & South Bank Circular - can be completed in two hours, but listeners have the freedom to take as long as they wish to explore the route of each tour. Listeners have the chance to really get under the skin of London - stopping where and when they want.

Purchase any Walk Talk Tour and get a second one free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Pictured above is the Firefighters' Memorial with St Paul's Cathedral in the background.

Are Manchester's weekends wetter?

2009-10-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

In the UK, Manchester is renowned for being a city where it rains a lot of the time. According to a Meteorological Office report in 2004, Swansea received the most rainfall of any UK city. The report was based on the rainfall figures for the previous twenty years. Manchester was ranked down in ninth place. Furthermore, Manchester received less annual rainfall than three other English cities - Plymouth, Preston and Bristol.

One of the most imaginatively titled events at the week long Manchester Science Festival takes place this Saturday at the city's Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) and is called 'You are the scientist: Does it rain more at the weekend?'.

The following day, beer drinkers can discover more about the science behind brewing beer in Manchester. The Festival website promises that participants at the event at MOSI will be able to: "See the process then drink the product."

The Festival coincides with many local schools' week long half-term break.

This year's Festival has four themes: Manchesticity, Mind and Body, Our Planet & Beyond and Bright Ideas. Events will be staged at a variety of venues in the city, including the Museum of Science and Industry on Liverpool Road and the John Rylands Library on Deansgate.

The Festival's website helpfully grades events by age group, by theme and by date. And, consequently is easy to navigate around.

You can follow and interact with the Festival on Twitter @mcrscifest or become a fan of the Festival on Facebook.

Visitors to Manchester can discover more about the world's first industrial city with their own audio downloadable tour. The Manchester: Then & Now audio guide (costs £5) and is composed of commentary points (like tracks on a CD or an iTunes album). Listeners can stop and start as they wish - or as the heavens dictate!

Purchase any Walk Talk Tour (including the Manchester: Then & Now tour) and get a second tour (London, Edinburgh, Chester or York) free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

What will we pay for top quality content?

2009-10-16T02:12:00.000-07:00

The London Evening Standard became a free newspaper on Monday, October 12. The paper has abandoned its cover price of 50p and increased its daily circulation to 600,000 copies.

Loyal readers may well fear that the quality of writing in the paper will deteriorate with the newspaper becoming freely available. The Standard hopes that by becoming a free paper and greatly increasing its circulation it will be able to attract increased advertising revenue. The Managing Director of the Evening Standard, Andrew Mullins, told The Guardian that: "without removing the cover price, a dwindling circulation was inevitable."

Unlike its competitors, such as the Metro, the Standard has maintained that it will retain its heavy hitting columnists and writers. Articles in its competitors publication routinely appear without a bye-line acknowledging the journalist responsible for the piece. In fairness, other well established and respected publications like The Economist do not either.

The Standard was first published back in 1827. The Evening Standard arrived in 1859.

The way that we consume news and information has been revolutionized by the Internet. When once there were a few established news sources in the UK now there are numerous different ways of keeping with what's going on in the world.

Similarly, the way we digest information about a place as a sightseer is changing, too. Where once visitors were restricted to guide books, newspapers reviews and guided bus or walking tours, now they can enjoy the freedom to enjoy some of London's most popular attractions and ares on their own terms.

Independent minded travellers can discover more about the history of Fleet Street with the Ride & Stride audio walking tour. Fleet Street was the birth place of the regular printed press in England.

The introduction of new technologies, principally computer typesetting saw the major newspapers vacate Fleet Street. Journalists continue to use the name Fleet Street to invoke the headquarters of the British press, even though Reuters - the last of the major news agencies/papers to occupy premises on the Street - moved out four years ago.

There are five Walk Talk Tours of London. All of which are available in English, French, German and Spanish. Each audio guide costs just £5.95 and is downloadable in MP3 format.

Purchase one Walk Talk Tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Fourth Plinth 'to let'... but not for long

2009-10-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

Finally after 100 days the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square is unoccupied again.

Emma Burns, the final participant in Anthony Gormley's living art work entitled 'One and Other' was lowered to the ground from the top of the fourth plinth to Trafalgar Square below. Burns was 2400th member of the public to stand - or otherwise - occupy the plinth for an hour. The final occupant of the plinth was allowed an extra three minutes in situ, so she could read the names of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989.

Gormley, who is perhaps best known as the sculptor of the Angel of the North in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear was quoted by the Press Association as saying that: "It's a very strange mixed emotion. On the one hand you've finished, we've done what we said we were going to do, we've had 2,400 unbroken hours of occupation by living, human people in a place of bronze public sculpture and that's an achievement."

Nine out of the 2400 participants chose to appear nude on the plinth for some, or all, of their hour long stint.

Visitors can hear more about royal and monumental London with the Palace Trail audio travel guide. Listeners will hear about the furore that surrounded the installation of Nelson's Column - the monument that dominates the Square.

A temporary statue of New Zealander Sir Keith Park will be installed on top of the fourth plinth for six months from November 4, 2009. The temporary 2.78m (9ft) memorial in Trafalgar Square will be dwarfed by the 5m (16.4ft) permanent statue which will be erected in Waterloo Place in 2010.

To find out more about Sir Keith Park, the Air Vice Marshal, who commanded the defence of London and South East England during the Battle of Britain, take a look at our blog post 'Flying Ace set for fourth plinth' from October 30 last year. The bronze statue of Sir Keith Park in Waterloo Place will be erected in September, 2010 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain (July 10 - October 31, 1940).

There are five Walk Talk Tours of London in all. Each Walk Talk Tour city guide is available in English, French, German and Spanish. Each audio walking tour of London costs just £5.95. To hear an audio sample (from the English version of the tour) from the Palace Trail please click here.

Buy one Walk Talk Tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Edith Cavell remembered 94 years on

2009-10-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

Edith Louisa Cavell was a nurse whose actions during World War One turned her into a heroine.

After completing her formal education, Cavell spent time as a Governess with a family in Belgium, before returning to Britain, where she turned her attention to nursing in 1895.

Cavell was appointed the director of the Berkendael Institute, a training school for nurses, which also served as a clinic, in Brussels seven years before the outbreak of World War One in 1914. Cavell and her school had earned a strong reputation prior to the onset of hostilities.

The German occupation forced the school to moth ball its expansion plans. Cavell turned her energies to helping captured Allied soldiers to escape. Allied soldiers were provided with false papers and disguised as patients.

Around 200 British, French and Belgian servicemen were thought to have been helped to escape to the neutral Netherlands by the time that the Germans arrested Cavell, Philippe Baucq (one of the leaders of the clandestine operation) and several others in August, 1915.

Cavell made a full confession and was sentenced to death. The words: "Patriotism is not enough" were part of the words that appeared in her final message from prison.

Cavell was shot at dawn on October 12, 1915. Baucq was also executed.

Edith Cavell became a martyr and her experience was milked for all its worth by British propaganda during the War. The outcry that her execution provoked led the Kaiser to order that the execution of all female prisoners must have his personal sanction.

After the end of World War One, a funeral service was held for Cavell in Westminster Abbey and her body was buried in Norwich Cathedral on May 15, 1919.

The statue of Cavell in St Martin's Place, near Trafalgar Square, (pictured above) was erected in the early 1920s. Roads were named after her in Belgium and across the British Empire.

The picture above is ©Viveca Koh and was uploaded onto Flickr on October 3, 2008. Viveca's photostream on Flickr can be viewed here.

Visitors to London can hear about the city's Theatreland, Covent Garden and more with the Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts Walk Talk Tour. The tour passes the statue of Edith Cavell in St Martin's Place.

Unlike a normal guided tour, listeners have the flexibility to explore the route at their own pace. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

There are five Walk Talk Tours of London. Each of which is available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Buy one Walk Talk Tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Edinburgh's 'forgotten' monuments set for new lease of life

2009-10-08T01:54:00.000-07:00

The graveyards of the Scottish capital might not be the first thing to spring to mind when you think of Edinburgh. And you would not be alone (I don't either). Nevertheless, graveyards such as Greyfriars Kirkyard and Canongate Kirk in the city's Old Town contain a welter of gravestones commemorating the final resting place of a number of famous and 'ordinary' Scots.

The World Monuments Fund has taken the decision to put five city centre graveyards on its 'at risk list'. The New York based Fund was approached by Edinburgh City Council. The Times reports that "The council is legally required to maintain the green spaces in the burial grounds, but families are often responsible for individual tombs — a problem when 300 to 400-year-old monuments are involved."

The city council plans to form a Historic Graveyards Trust in partnership with the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust and campaigners, which will co-ordinate fund raising activities designed to pay for the upkeep of the cemeteries.

The five cemeteries are St Cuthberts Churchyard, the Carlton Old Burial Ground, New Calton and the aforementioned Greyfriars Kirkyard and Canongate Kirkyard.

Greyfriars Kirkyard is famous for two reasons. Firstly, it was the site for the signing of the Covenant in the 1638. The Covenant was a rejection of an attempt to enforce Scottish worshippers to conform to the governance and liturgy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud.

Greyfriars Kirkyard is now better known because of the remarkable loyalty of a Syke Terrier named Bobby. Bobby's owner, John Grey, a night watchman died of tuberculosis in February 1858. Bobby mounted a vigil at his master's unmarked grave.

For the remaining fourteen years of his life Bobby kept watch in Greyfriars Kirkyard. Bobby won the affection of many local people and his star has risen since his death. Visitors to Edinburgh can hear more about Greyfriars Bobby and Edinburgh Old Town with the Royal Mile & More audio walking tour.

Canongate Kirkyard is the final resting place of Agnes McLehose, Robert Burns' true love. To hear more about McLehose and Burns please click here.

Burns paid for the original gravestone for one of his contemporaries, Robert Fergusson, who died at the tender age of 24. This year marks the 250th anniversary of Burn's birth. The bronze statue of Fergusson (pictured top) was created by David Annand and was unveiled five years ago.

Adam Smith, the father of political economy and the author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is also buried in Canongate Kirkyard.

Buy one Walk Talk Tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Both Edinburgh audio tours are downloadable in MP3 format and costs just £5.95 each.

Manchester beyond the Tory Party Conference Part 2

2009-10-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

The Conservative Party has a suitable venue for its annual Conference - with a General Election likely to be called early next May. Manchester's Tourism Board and Marketing Agency like to portray the city as a place of progress and opportunity; the Conservative Party feels that it, too, embodies these qualities. Manchester has moved with the times without forgeting its past something the Conservative Party is keen to perusade voters it has done, too.

It can be argued that Manchester first flourished because of the lack of regulation in the city - the city did not gain a Council – or Corporation - to govern its affairs and manage its growth until 1838. Effective regulation is important, but excessive red tape can stifle enterprise and be a real burden to all businesses - small or large.

Delegates wanting to look beyond the ring of steel may well be surprised at what the city has to offer on a cultural level. Many visitors may be surprised to discover that the city has Roman roots as listeners to the Manchester: Then & Now audio tour can discover. The audio downloadable tour costs £5 and covers 2.4 miles (3.8km). Listeners have the freedom to stop, start and resume their commentary as they see fit.

The twelfth annual Manchester Food and Drink Festival is currently taking place across Greater Manchester. The main action in the city of Manchester is centred in St Ann's Square. The Square and St Ann's Church have a rich heritage as listeners to the Manchester: Then & Now audio walking tour will discover. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

Manchester is better known for having been at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. The city's Museum of Science and Industry has a huge range of exhibits from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Entry to MOSI is free; though charges do apply for certain temporrary exhibitions. Forthcoming exhibtions to look out for include Da Vinci - The Genius, which begins on November 14.

Urbis, Manchester's museum of urban life, can be an interesting place to while away a few hours. The futuristic looking building lies close to the Old Shambles (pictured above) Manchester Cathedral, Victoria Railway Station and the Printworks entertainment complex. The Manchester Then & Now audio travel guide concludes in Cathedral Gardens close to Urbis.

Buy one Walk Talk Tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Three Gory Ways to be Executed - Who suffered what & why

2009-09-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

The use of capital punishment for punishing convicted murderers was abolished under the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act in 1965. Listed below are three figures whose 'crimes' saw them condemned to death in a variety of excruciating and dehumanising ways.

1. Hanged drawn and quartered - Sir William Wallace met this gruesome fate in 1305. His head was cut off and displayed on London Bridge. Wallace's fate was typical for those found guilty of treason at the time.

What had he done? An army led by Wallace and Andrew Murray had defeated the English at the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. At the Battle of Falkirk the English archers wrought their revenge, the following year. Wallace travelled to France, where he sought support from the French King, Philip IV. The English King Edward I succeeded in largely snuffing out Scottish resistance in 1304. Wallace was captured in August of the following year. He should not have been tried for treason as he had never sworn allegiance to Edward.

Wallace's brave resitance against the English has made him a Scottish hero.

Find out more about London Bridge and the once infamous Tower of London (pictured above) with The City & South Bank Circular tour (available in English, French, German and Spanish).

2. Burnt to death - George Marsh. Marsh was led through the streets while reading his bible, before he was burnt at the stake on Gallows Hill, Spital Broughton on 24th April, 1555.

What had he done? Marsh converted to Protestantism in his youth. The monarch of the day, Queen Mary was a devout Catholic, who earned the nickname 'Bloody Mary' for her treatment of Protestant preachers, whom she persecuted in an attempt to restore Catholicism. He made various trips to towns and villages in his native Lancashire, where he preached his - contenious - version of the faith. His preaching did not go unnoticed by the authorities. He surrendered to the authorities in March 1554. He refused to recant his beliefs. Marsh was sentenced to death in the Consistory Court of Chester Cathedral. Visitors can hear more about the city's rich heritage with the Chester Revealed audio guide.

3. Crushed to death - Margaret Clitherow. Clitherow was killed by an excruciating process whereby an 800lb weight was lowered on to her body, until she was crushed to death, on March 25, 1586, in the city of York.

What had she done? After her conversion to Catholicism, Clitherow refused to attend Church. She was accused of of harbouring Jesuit and seminary priests in her home on the Shambles in York. The harbouring of these types of non-Protestant priests had been made punishable by death in 1583. Clitherow refused to answer the charges; famously saying instead: "Having made no offence, I need no trial."

Clitherow was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1970 and is often referred to as the 'Pearl of York'. The feast day of Saint Margaret Clitherow is March 25th. Hear more about York's history with the Best of York, Walk Talk Tour.

Manchester beyond the Tory Party Conference Part 1

2009-09-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

Preparations are already afoot for the Conservative Party Conference, which begins on Monday, October 5th and concludes on Thursday, October 8th.

A number of buildings and streets will be off limits to non-authorised personnel as this week progresses. By Friday of this week, Lower Moseley Street, Museum Street, Windmill Street, Mount Street and Peter Street will be closed in part or in full - accept to authorised personnel. The headline speeches will be made in Manchester Central (formerly the GMEX). Manchester Central and the Midland Hotel form part of the secure site, which only authorised personnel - delegates, journalists and authorised support staff will have access to.

The GMEX Metrolink tram station will be closed for the duration of the four day event.

Delegates, journalists and visitors alike will want to find some light relief away from the Conference island site. Manchester has lots of great places to eat and drink. Conference goers can try a range of Indian cuisine on the city's famous Curry Mile in Rusholme - approximately 2.3 miles from the Midland Hotel (pictured below). Delegates can catch a cab, take a walk or catch a bus from bus stop J in Piccadilly Gardens and take a number 111, a number 42 or a X57 to the Curry Mile.

Alternatively, sample Chinese and Oriental cuisine in Manchester's China Town a short walk from the secure island site. My favourite Chinese restaurant in the city, Sweet Mandarin, is located on Copperas Street in Manchester's Northern Quarter. Sisters Helen, Lisa and Janet Tse set up the restaurant five years ago. The food is excellent and the welcome is warm and genuine. The restaurant is situated close to the Old Fish Market, on High Street, and near to the Manchester Craft and Design Centre.

The aforementioned Craft and Design Centre is often overlooked in reviews of 'things to do in the city'. It's a great place to unwind and appreciate the work of local photographers, sculptors and artists.

Gravitating back towards the island site as delegates and journalists will inevitably do, I would recommend you take a look at the interior of the Royal Exchange Theatre. For many years, the Royal Exchange was the hub of the world's cotton trade. Visitors can learn more about the Royal Exchange and how Manchester became the world's first industrial city with the Manchester: Then & Now audio guide. Closing prices from the final day's trading, December 31, 1968, are still posted on the wall at the Exchange Street end of the Great Hall.

Visitors will see that the former Great Hall is occupied by a futuristic theatre-in-the-round. Listeners to the Walk Talk Tour of Manchester will hear how this area of the city was damaged, and, subsequently rebuilt after a 3,300lb bomb planted by the IRA fifty metres from the building exploded on June 15th, 1996.

The Walk Talk Tour of Manchester is 2.4 miles (3.8km) long; can be completed in two hours and costs £5. Unlike a conventional guided tour, listeners have the freedom to stop, start and listen again to any part of their commentary. To hear an audio sample from the Manchester: Then & Now tour please click here.

Later in the week, I will be looking at some of Manchester's heritage and cultural offering...

The gateway pictured top is on Salmon Street in the Northern Quarter.

The Houses of Parliament: One murder, a plot and traditions galore

2009-09-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

The Houses of Parliament consists of two chambers, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The proper name for the 'Mother of all Parliaments' is the new Palace of Westminster. Some of the incidents and traditions associated with the Houses of Parliament are outlined below.

Visitors to London can discover more about the new Palace of Westminster and the pomp and ceremony associated with royal and monumental London with the Palace Trail walking tour.

The only British Prime Minister to be assassinated during their time in Office was shot as he entered the Lobby of the House of Commons in 1812. Spencer Perceval was shot by John Bellingham, a deranged merchant who blamed his insolvency on the Government. Bellingham was later hanged.

Conspirators who plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament met a similar end to Bellingham. The Gunpowder Plot is the most famous plot involving the Houses of Parliament. Acting on a tip off, on the night of 4 November, 1605, a search party discovered in the cellars, beneath the House of Lords, 36 barrels of gunpowder and one of the plot's conspirators, Guy Fawkes. The King, James I, was due to open Parliament the following day. Guy Fawkes and the other members of the Gunpowder Plot were tried in Westminster Hall in 1606 and were later beheaded.

There have further non-life threatening attempts for members of the public to protest against various policies being pursued by the Government of the day.

One of the highlights of the polictial calender in the UK is provided when the Monarch of the day performs the State Opening of Parliament. Tradition dictates that the Monarch does not step foot in the House of Commons. This tradition developed after King Charles I entered the Lower House in 1642 with a group of armed men to arrest five MPs (John Pym, John Hampden, Sir Arthur Haselrig, Denzill Holles and William Strode).

The five MPs had been forewarned and managed to escape. The King was quoted as saying "I see all the birds are flown".

Instead the Members of Parliament in the Lower House are summoned to the Upper House by an official known as the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. Traditionally the doors to the Lower Chamber are slammed shut in the face of the Gentleman Usher - symbolising the right of the House of Commons to debate without outside interference. The Gentleman Usher knocks on the door three times with the Black Rod, before the doors to the Commons are opened. The Gentleman Usher then informs the Lower House that the Monarch awaits them. The MPs then proceed to the House of Lords, where they hear the Queen's Speech.

The Palace Trail sightseeing tour is available in English, French, German and Spanish like the other four Walk Talk Tour London travel guides. To hear an audio sample from the Palace Trail please click here.

The top image was retrieved from the Daily Mail online edition from January 30, 2008.

Five Chester Curiosities

2009-09-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

The county town of Cheshire is situated on England's border with Wales.

1. The origin of the Rows - public galleries that run uninterrupted through the front of buildings at street level in the centre of Chester - is contentious. Research suggests that the Rows have existed in something resembling their current form since the mid thirteenth century.

From the beginning, the word 'row' was applied to small assemblies of shops connected by a single trade and sometimes owned by one merchant. Visitors to the city can go walk about on the Rows with the Chester Revealed audio tour guide.

2. The area of the city known as the Roodee is the site for Chester Racecourse, the oldest racecourse in Britain and the longest continuous sporting venue in the country, too.

3. The Deva Stadium, home of Chester City Football Club, is located on the border between England and Wales. Most of the stadium - bar the club's offices and half the East Stand - is located in Wales.

4. Chester's city walls form the most complete continuous circuit of Roman and medieval walls in Britain. Enjoy a stroll along part of the Walls with the Walk Talk Tour of Chester. The tour is narrated by actor and broadcaster, Jonathan Keeble. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

5. The Kaleyards Gate (pictured above)originally dates from the late thirteenth century, when the then Abbot of St Werbergh was granted permission to have a gate installed in the city walls so that the Abbey’s monks could access their vegetable garden more easily and safely. Kaleyards Gate is much smaller than the other gates that provided access in and out of the city.

Every day, in keeping with tradition, a curfew bell is rung at 8.45pm. This used to signal that the Kaleyards Gate would be closed at 9.00pm (it would then be reopened at daybreak the following day). Sadly, the tradition of locking the Gate has been discontinued.

The picture above shows the entrance to the Grosvenor Shopping Centre. The Grosvenor family - headed by the Duke of Westminster - have long been influential in the city as listeners to the Chester Revealed audio tour will discover.

Map a do about nothing?

2009-09-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has demanded that the River Thames be reinstated to the next version of the British capital's iconic Underground Map. Mr Johnson wrote on Twitter that:"Can't believe that the Thames disappeared off the tube map whilst I was out the country! It will be reinstated…"

Removing London's river has been condemned by Londoners, too. Transport for London's decision to remove the concentric ring of charging zones has also been heavily criticised.

Transport for London have promised that the River will be reinstated in the December version of the map. Henry Beck was the man responsible for designing the London Underground Map with which we have become so familiar. Mr Beck abandoned the idea of trying to accurately plot the locations of the myriad of Underground Stations on the Underground. He opted instead to depict all lines running horizontally, vertically or diagonally. This made for a map which was easy to read (and where every station was located on the correct side of its immediate neighbours).

Jonathan Woodham wrote in A Dictionary of Modern Design (Oxford, 2004), that: "The clarity of its visual organization through the use of colour‐coded lines has subsequently influenced the design of urban transport maps in many countries of the world."

The Metropolitan Line, the first underground railway opened in the world opened in London in 1863. Originally, tunnels were dug using a 'cut and cover' method, whereby a trench was dug, the railway tracks were laid, an arched tunnel was constructed and then the road was relaid on the surface. Improved tunneling techniques, led to London claiming another first; that of the world's first deep level Tube from the City to Stockwell, which opened in 1890.

Visitors to London can learn more about the development of mass transit at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. Discover more about the history of Covent Garden and Theatreland with the Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts audio guide. To hear an audio sample from the audio tour please click here.

All of the Walk Talk Tours of London come complete with a free downloadable map (though not designed in Beck's style) and easy to follow instructions.

When Public Openings go Wrong

2009-09-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

The following four examples from around the UK demonstrate how even the best laid plans for public openings can go wrong...

Picture the scene London in the early nineteenth century. A party had been organised to celebrate the redesigned St James's Park in 1814. John Nash, the architect responsible for widening the canal in the park into a lake and laying down new footpaths, organised a spectacular fireworks display for some distinguished guests, but unfortunately, the pagoda erected on the bridge across the new lake caught fire and one person was killed.

Some sixteen years later, on September 15, 1830 the world's first intercity railway line opened between Manchester and Liverpool. Unfortunately, the momentous event was overshadowed when William Huskisson, the President of the Board of Trade, unwittingly became the first recorded fatality on the railways in the world.

Fast forward to the twenty-first century and head south to London where the Millennium Bridge was opened amid much fanfare by Queen Elizabeth II, on 10 June 2000. The first new bridge to span the River Thames in over a hundred years, was referred to it as a ‘blade of light’. Unfortunately, the bridge earned the nickname of the 'Wobbly Bridge' as synchronised foot steps of the thousands of visitors caused it to oscillate, in a process called 'excitation'. Listeners to the City and South Bank Circular audio travel guide can hear how Sir Norman Foster, Sir Anthony Caro and the engineering firm Arup succeeded in rectifying the problem.

We head North again, this time to the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. The new Scottish Parliament was officially opened by the Queen, on 9th October 2004. The complex was eleven times over budget and three years behind schedule. The Holyrood complex opened for business on September 8 of the same year, but its opening was delayed as The Times reported "The doors wouldn't open because officials didn't have the right key." The final debate of the day had to be cut short when the MSPs' microphones failed.

The Parliament is worth a visit. Visitors can hear more about the Scottish Parliament's history and the matters over which it has the power to legislate with the Royal Mile & More audio guide.

Three Cultural Ambassadors Edinburgh can do without

2009-09-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

The dust on the major Edinburgh Festivals has barely settled and already there's talk about how the city can most effectively promote its offering to the wider world. Tweleve celebrities who hail from, or have strong connections with, the Scottish capital have been selected to help promote the city's festivals to the wider world.

Listed below are three Ambassadors that the Edinburgh Festivals would probably rather not have champion their collective cause:

1. Kenny MacAskill - The Cabinet Secretary for Justice in the Scottish Parliament sparked a storm of outrage on both sides of the Atlantic with his decision to release, on compassionate grounds, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the man convicted to life imprisonment for the murder of 270 people in the Lockerbie bombing which took place in 1988. Mr Al Megrahi was given a hero's welcome on his return to Libya. Almost 200 US citizens were killed in the flight and there have already been calls, in some quarters, for Americans to boycott travelling to Scotland and stop buying Scottish produce.

VERDICT: No doubt he has some qualities, but Mr MacAskill is not great Ambassador material, particularly in the worst recession since the 1930s and during Homecoming Scotland 2009, which is meant to celebrate the virtues of all things Scottish.

2. Sir Fred Goodwin - The former Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland helped bring a proud institution to the brink of disaster, which was only averted when £20bn of taxpayers' money was injected to save the bank. To compound matters, Sir Fred was reported as having a pension pot of £16.6m at the end of last year, giving him an annual salary of £693,000.

VERDICT: Sir Fred did not commit any crime, but as Tom Geoghegan and Finlo Rohrer, writing on the BBC website in March put it, he was :"at best guilty of naivety and poor decision-making, at worst recklessness".

3. Deacon Brodie - William Brodie died on the gallows in 1788. The seemingly respectable cabinet maker led a double life. By day, Brodie epitomised the respectable tradesmen, as president of the largest incorporated guild in Edinburgh, a councillor of the burgh and a carpenter to the well heeled. However, by night he liked to drink, gamble and womanise the nights away. In order to fund his various vices and illegitimate offspring, Brodie turned to crime. He would create a wax copy of the key for the properties where he worked and then, with the aid of an accomplice, have a copy made, which would enable him to return to the abode to steal any valuables.

VERDICT - If he were alive today, you wouldn't want him representing your city. Would probably go to town on the complimentary buffet before stealing the crokery - and the PowerPoint projector.

Listeners can hear much more about Deacon Brodie, his life, his crimes, and arrest; and the Edinburgh born novelist who was inspired by Brodie's life story with the Royal Mile & More, audio guide. To hear an audio sample from the Royal Mile & More tour please click here.

Buy one tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Culinary York: Kit Kat to Crude Food

2009-09-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

A Kit Kat chocolate bar was among the items sealed in a time capsule and then buried in a ceremony to mark the completion of Goodricke College at York University's new Heslington East campus. The Kit Kat in question will be well past its best when the capsule is dug up in the twenty-second century.

Pupils from two local primary schools helped select the items that were included in the capsule. Other items included a passport, a Harry Potter book, a toothbrush and an iPod.

Elizabeth Heaps, the University's Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Estates and Strategic Projects, told the Yorkshire Post that: "We are grateful to the pupils at both schools for helping us with this project and for the wonderful ingenuity and imagination of their suggestions... Together with the items suggested by staff and students at the University, they paint a fascinating picture of life in and around York in 2009."

The capital of the White Rose County has a long and distinguished history of sweet - or 'candy' making. The city was synonymous in the past with Rowntrees and Terry's confectionery companies. Nestle acquired Rowntree plc in 1988. Nestle Rowntree is now the only major chocolate manufacturer in York, after Terry’s, another famous York name, closed its factory in city in 2005 - with the loss of 300 jobs.

Visitors to the city can learn more about the Rowntree family's connections with confectionery in York with the Best of York audio guide. The self guided tour begins in St Helen's Square and finishes outside York Minster and takes in the site of the Rowntree brothers' first sweet making factory in the nineteenth century. The Best of York tour can be downloaded from our website for £4.50.

Sightseers without the means to download the tour can hire it on a pre-loaded MP3 player from the city's two Tourist Information Centres, located at the De Grey Rooms and at the Railway Station. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

The thirteenth annual York Food and Drink Festival begins on September 18th. The theme of this year's ten day festival, which will run across all of the festival's activities, is Crude Food. According to the Festival's website: "Crude can be natural or raw; it may be a strange shape or blemished, but still very tasty; it can be unadorned or simply prepared..."

The Festival organisers are committed to showcasing the best of Yorkshire produce.

One of the highlights of this year's festival are two walks called 'Fancy a Forage' on Wednesday, September 23rd, when participants will have the opportunity to discover which natural foodstuffs are safe to eat and which are not with Chris Bax, from Taste the Wild, in two separate tours of Rowntrees Park and the Riverside(10am - 1pm and 2pm - 5pm).

The picture above shows Bootham Bar in the foreground and York Minster in the background. I have included it because the city's professional soccer club, York City, used to play at Bootham Crescent, which was renamed the KitKat Crescent in 2005 after club officials signed a sponsorship deal with Nestlé, which enabled the confectionery giant to rename the ground. Many fans still refer to the ground by its original name.

More Brits choose Blighty (And so can you)

2009-09-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

According to the UK Tourism Survey, which will be published on Monday, September 6, 7.1 million Brits chose to shun the sun and enjoy a 'staycation' in the UK in May this year - up from 6 million for the same month last year.

Penelope, Viscountess Cobham, the chairman of England's official tourism board, VisitEngland, told The Sunday Telegraph: "The April to June period has shown increases in the numbers of holiday trips and in visits to visitor attractions... The latest statistics bear this out with May looking to be a record month for domestic holiday trips."

Brits and foreigners alike can tap into the rich heritage of some of Britain most visited cities, including London and Edinburgh, with audio downloadable walking tours brought to you by Walk Talk Tours. Each guide is professionally researched and recorded.

When sightseeing in the UK it is always a good idea to be prepared to encounter rain, as this mime artist who performed on the Royal Mile at the recent Edinburgh Festival would testify. Soak up Edinburgh Old Town's unique atmosphere with the Royal Mile & More tour.

Unlike a conventional guided tour, listeners to a Walk Talk Tour audio travel guide are in charge of their own destiny, so if the heavens should open listeners can take shelter and resume their tour when the skies have cleared. There are no hidden charges, deadlines or overbearing guides to contend with. Simply buy online, download to your computer, transfer to your device and away you go.

The Scott Monument, pictured left, was erected in honour of Sir Walter Scott, the great historic novelist and Scottish patriot of the nineteenth century. Listeners can hear more about Scott with the Old and New Towns audio guide. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

Customers can buy one tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Visitors to Manchester, Chester and York can also go walk about with Walk Talk Tours. Visitors without the means to listen to the tour of the aforementioned three cities can hire the tours on a pre-loaded MP3 player from the Tourist Information Centres in each city.

The five Walk Talk Tours of London are available in French, German and Spanish.

Killer's Features Captured - 180 years on

2009-09-04T06:15:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh's Old Town was scandalized in the late 1820s by a spate of murderers which were committed by two Irishmen who had moved to the Scottish capital in search of work. The names of the deadly duo? William Burke and William Hare.

Bijan Moghbel, a former student on Dundee University's MSc Forensic Art course, has captured William Burke's image in colour and 3D. Mr Moghbel took measurements for the notorious killer's head from life and death masks preserved at the Museum of Anatomy at Edinburgh University.

Mr Moghbel told the Scotsman newspaper that: "I am more interested in the facial reconstruction and depiction aspect of the course, rather than the police forensics side of it, which is why I chose this as my project... The depiction was completed using Burke's death mask as reference, and I conducted research on early 19th century costumes and men's hairstyles to improve the accuracy of the depiction."

The first known victim of Burke and Hare did not die at their hands. When one of Hare’s lodgers known simply as ‘Donald’ passed away, owing Hare £4, Burke and Hare removed the corpse from the coffin and replaced it with bark. They then sold the cadaver to an Edinburgh University anatomist, Robert Knox, for dissection, for the sum of £7 10s.

Impressed by the rewards for supplying corpses to Knox (for cadavers were in short supply as only the bodies of executed murderers were legally available for dissection), turned their hands to murder early in 1828.

It is believed that the pair killed at least fifteen people who lived in the Grassmarket and in the West Bow areas of Edinburgh's Old Town. Burke and Hare's final victim had their life artificially curtailed on 31st October, 1828.

William Burke was charged with the murders of Mary Paterson, James Wilson and Mrs Docherty at a trial which began on 23rd December, 1828. Hare provided king’s evidence in return for his freedom. Burke was condemned to death.

Incredibly, Hare got off 'scot free' which is where the term is said to originate from.

Visitors to the Scottish capital can hear more about Burke and Hare, public executions and more with the Old and New Towns, audio downloadable walking tour. Unlike a regular guided tour, listeners to a Walk Talk Tour Edinburgh travel guide have the freedom to stop, start and listen again to any part of their commentary. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

Customers can buy one tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Fiction mirrors fact in National Gallery drama

2009-08-31T06:37:00.000-07:00

A television drama called Framed will be shown on BBC One this evening. In the programme, Quentin Lester played by Trevor Eve, is a curator at the National Gallery in London charged with overseeing the safe transportation and storage of precious paintings in a Welsh mine after the Gallery is flooded. Framed is based on Frank Cottrell Boyce's novel of the same name (which was first published in 2005).

The National Gallery closed its doors to the public in September 1939 because of the threat posed by German bombing. The Gallery's vast collection was transported to safer parts of the British Isles. Much of the collection ended up in Wales.

In 1940, with the increased threat of bombing in Wales, it was decided to move the treasures once more. After much searching Ian Rawlins, the National Gallery’s scientific advisor, decided Manod Quarry, a slate mine, would make a suitably secure home for the paintings in September 1940. It took approximately a year to convert the mine to its new use, and then transport the paintings by rail to the mine.

Entry to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery next door is free. Visitors to London can learn more about the galleries, Leicester Square, Covent Garden and the British Museum with the Museums, Galleries and Performing Arts, Walk Talk Tour. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

On Friday, figures published by England's official tourism board, Visit England, revealed that in 2008 the National Gallery was the third most visited free visitor attraction in the country behind the British Museum and Tate Britain. The National Portraity Gallery was the ninth most visited free attraction in England. According to the BBC news website "the survey included visitor entry numbers for 1,684 attractions in England for 2007 and 2008".

There are five Walk Talk Tours of London which listeners download to their iPod, iPhone, MP3 player or cell phone. Each of the London audio guides is available in French, German, Spanish, and of course, English. And each guide is a mine of information, if you will pardon the pub.

Customers can buy one tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Manchester: Turing to Pride

2009-08-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

Some places never cease to surprise, shock or delight. Manchester, the world's first industrial city, is the venue for the Big Weekend the culmination of Manchester Pride. The highlight of this year's event will be the parade through the city tomorrow, starting at 13:00.

Manchester Pride has been variously called Absolutely Fabulous, GayFest, Mardi Gras and EuroPride since it was held for the first time in 1990 as a means of supporting people affected by HIV.

The world’s first stored programme computer - known as the Baby - was built by a team at Manchester University in 1948 which included a brilliant mathematician called Alan Turing.

Prior to the outbreak of war he had invented the Turing Machine, - the forerunner of the modern computer - which could alter a set of inputted instructions. During the Second World War played a crucial role in deciphering the German 'Enigma' code.

His career was ruined when he was convicted for homosexuality in the 1952 for his sexual relationship with a man from Manchester. Turing was spared jail, but he was obliged to take injections of oestrogen designed to reduce sex drive.

In 1954, his body was found at his Wilmslow home next to a half eaten apple, which had been laced with cyanide. The half eaten apple was adopted as the symbol of computing giant Apple, in his honour.

Sexual activity between consenting males was decriminalized in 1967.

Visitors to Manchester can discover more about the city - and some of the rich characters who have inhabited it - with the Manchester: Then & Now audio guide.

Unlike a conventional guided tour, listeners have the flexibility to stop, start and listen again to any part of their commentary. To hear an audio sample form the tour please click here.

Scottish Parliament in the Dock?

2009-08-25T03:11:00.000-07:00

The Members of the Scottish Parliament have reconvened at an emergency session at Holyrood to debate the decision taken by Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Minister, to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi. Mr MacAskill decision to release al-Megrahi, the man convicted of being the Lockerbie bomber, has provoked outrage around the world. The bomb placed aboard Pan Am Flight 103 killed 270 people.

In addition to antagonising and upsetting the families of the bereaved, the decision has served to expose some of the frailties in the relationship between the devolved Government in Edinburgh and Westminster.

The Westminster Parliament retains a number of 'reserved matters' over which only it can legislate. These include the UK's membership of the European Union, immigration issues, taxation, social security, foreign policy, and certain issues relating to transport, defence and national security. Devolved matters which the Scottish Executive can legislate on include: agriculture, fisheries and forestry, economic development, education, health, housing and planning.

Political commentators have been quick to point out that this is the most serious challenge that the Scottish Parliament has faced since it was re-established ten years ago.

Many critics and comedians have long belittled the Scottish Parliament, which Billy Connolly dubbed a "wee pretendy parliament".

Visitors to the Scottish capital can learn more about the new Scottish Parliament with the Royal Mile & More, Edinburgh travel guide. Unlike a conventional guided tour, listeners to the Royal Mile & More audio guide have the freedom to stop, start and listen again to any part of their commentary. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

The new Scottish Parliament building was officially opened by the Queen on October 9, 2004. The building, or complex, is impressive, though it has not been without its problems.

The building's architect, the late Enric Mirralles, drew inspiration from upturned boats, landscape and paintings. The picture top left was taken outside the public entrance to the Scottish Parliament.

Listeners can buy one tour and get a second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.