While I was in the capital I thought I'd check out how the Gàidhlig was doing these days and where better to start than with the Parliament, the pinnacle of the political process and an institution currently dominated by the SNP.

Just for background: the 2001 census recorded 92,400 people (1.9% of the Scottish population) as being able to read, write, speak or understannd Gàidhlig, and I didn't hear a word of it around me anywhere in the city while I was there.

My first attempt to gain entry to the Parliament was not successfull but it did have its consolations. I was glad to see that the sign, which effectively told me to go away, was bilingual. I was also heartened to see that I would not have needed the English language translation to have understood it.

So off I went to find another way to penetrate the holy of holies (joke: Holyrood).

While this sign clearly showed me the way, it was a bit disconcerting to find that the instruction part was in English only. Nevertheless I persevered and found the main entrance.

I wasn't exactly strip searched - I didn't have to remove my trouser braces and enter the Parliament after the fashion of Jimín Mháire Thaidhg with my hands in my pockets. The braces did however set off the sensitive mechanism and get me frisked (male to male, I'm sorry to report).

However, the sign was bilingual and it did teach me a new word, the Gàidhlig for "security", clearly an important concept in these troubled times.

So in I went. As I made my way to the chamber I noticed that signs were bilingual and there was a good selection of information booklets (such as the one with the above cover) in both languages. I spent some time in the chamber listening to a debate on a Tory motion criticising the Scottish Government's handling of the NHS, but nary a word of Gàidhlig did I hear.

There appeared to be some people manning what looked like a translation booth. But on further inquiry they turned out to be the people dealing with the official report of the proceedings.

I inquired about some of the other booths. Yes, there was one for Gàidhlig translation but it was not manned. If a member intended to make an intervention in Gàidhlig there was a whole bureaucratic process to be gone through first and my impression is that you'd want to have copperfastened your justification for using the language and obliging the "Corporate Body" to committing appropriate resources on the day.

I had the impression that the institution feels that it is simply indulging a form of tokenism by the SNP but that it is easier to indulge it than create a political row. I suspect the process is quite demanding and there are limits to what is allowed. For example I read in the booklet, whose cover is illustrated above, that

There are a range of opportunities to use Gaelic in parliamentary business:

• Members may use Gaelic in debates or committee meetings, subject to prior agreement from the Presiding Officer or committee convener
• Motions, amendments to motions and questions must be in English but Members may provide an accompanying Gaelic translation which will be published in the Business Bulletin along with the English version

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The proof of the pudding here is surely in the eating and I don't know how frequently Gàidhlig is used in the chamber or in the report of proceedings. I must check it out sometime.

So much for the Parliament. In the course of a fascinating visit to the Camera Obscura (on which more later) the lady mentioned that the adjacent church was the only one in Edinburgh which had services in Gàidhlig. As this church is no longer a religious premises this did not bode well for the language in the cause of redemption.

The Highland Tolbooth St John's Church was closed in 1979 and apparently lay unused for a number of years. Its assembly hall did house the parliament on a temporary basis but it is now the centrepoint for the Edinburgh Festival. Its religious function transferred to Greyfriars Kirk from where the above view of the former church was taken.

There is a service in Gàidhlig in Greyfriars every Sunday at 12:30 and it appears to be taken by various visiting clergymen.

There is a section (above) in the rear corner of the church which is reserved for the Gàidhlig services. Gàidhlig bibles are left on the pews and prayer sheets are distributed at the Sunday services.

So it looks as though Gàidhlig is now more the language of Heaven than of the body politic, at least in Edinburgh itself.