While my male ex-colleague SL could happily stand up from the dinner table, cross the room, and find the gents with no trouble at all, any women who hoped to use the facilities at the University of Edinburgh were forced to make a much greater effort.

In short, there were no women’s lavatories on campus at all. If you needed to go, you asked a member of the student recruitment team to open a hatch for you, then you lowered yourself into an underground wheeled crate. When the door above you closed, you sped 60 miles north to Pitlochry.

On the day that I took this journey, TMcE and his children greeted me at the other end. As well as showing off the marvellous public conveniences of Pitlochry, they also offered to accommodate me for the night and drive me back to Edinburgh the next day. I accepted their invitation, mainly because I couldn’t face another minute in the toilet transport vehicle.