History

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Services - 2007


Seagull Trust Cruises

Free Canal Cruising for People with Special Needs

			Royal Patron HRH The Princess Royal

	Ratho Branch

		Branch History.

The Rev. Hugh Mackay, who was the Founder of the Seagull Trust, was looking for somewhere to cruise that preferably had a canal boat infrastructure in place. He found this at the Edinburgh Canal Centre in Ratho which had already started a canal boat restaurant operation some five years before. They were only too pleased to assist the fledgling Seagull Trust.
The Ratho Branch is, therefore, the original branch of the Seagull Trust and it was here that the first cruise for disabled people took place in 1979.


	The first Seagull Trust canal boat *“St. John Crusader”,* was presented to the Trust by the Order of St. John and in 1979, her first year of operation, she carried 470 passengers. Now over 7000 people a year come to enjoy the pleasures of canal cruising from the Seagull Trust Reception Centre at the Edinburgh Canal Centre in Ratho.


	The second boat owned and operated by the Ratho Branch was the *Janet Telford, a slightly smaller boat built for the Branch by the students at Telford College. After operating successfully for several years she was replaced by the Mackay Seagull*.


	In 1996, The Order of St. John generously provided a new boat to replace the *St John Crusader, the St. John Crusader II.* Each year the Order gives substantial financial support towards the running costs of the Branch.


	For some 14 years the Ratho Branch used the facilities of the Edinburgh Canal Centre at the Bridge Inn, Ratho.


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Seagull Trust Cruises has Scottish Charity Number SC027163. It is incorporated in Scotland as a Company Limited by Guarantee. Company Number SC179736
Registered Office: 19 Dean Terrace, Edinburgh EH4 1NL