From steak pies and celebrities at the national football stadium to crayfish salads and knights at Stirling Castle. My career in catering has been varied.

The castle’s new caterers benugo, who run cafes and restaurants at top attractions like London’s Victoria and Albert, recently asked me to manage the whole operation here. I’ve been in charge of the Unicorn Café for several years, but this is a step-change as I’m now also working on the events side – corporate dinners, banquets and weddings. Thankfully I’m not doing this on my own and am part of a great team including Andrea Hastings, who heads up the delivery of events, and executive chef John Mcwhirter. At the same time we’re bringing in some big changes in the café. Customers are already telling us that they like the new emphasis on fresh Scottish produce, home baking, and increased variety. We aim to have all our food from Scottish suppliers within six months, and we’ve already reached 85%.

In future we want the castle to be seen as offering some of the best catering any Scottish visitor attraction. The introduction of more imaginative things like fresh crayfish salad or free range egg sandwiches, chicken and pesto baguettes, fresh aubergine bake, wild boar sausages and a deli bar packed with scones, croissants and other pastries has been a good start.

The corporate side of things will allow me to make use of all the experience I built up in hotels and as deputy general manager of catering at the Hampden Park stadium in Glasgow. At Hamden it was about providing excellent lunches and dinners for thousands of people enjoying corporate hospitality at big matches.

There was always a special buzz when it was a final, and when Celtic or Rangers were playing. One of the crucial things was making sure that everyone, from ordinary fans to Rod Stewart or U2, had fantastic half-time pies (steak and onion or chicken curry were favourites). At the castle it’s about making sure that every wedding guest, lord, lady or dignitary at a banquet has a fantastic feast. It’s also about ensuring that every family or member of staff (including costumed performers, like chainmailed knights tucking into quiche and coffee) coming into the café enjoy something that’s tasty, good value and has been prepared with some flair and imagination.

Calum McLaren, Stirling Castle Catering General Manager

I’ve got a confession to make. I’m a 45-year-old happily married man but I’ve developed a crush. Nothing serious you understand, but colleagues here at Historic Scotland have started commenting.

She was a young single mum who was witty, clever and beautiful. And there’s the rub – you’ll notice I’ve slipped into the past tense. She died 450 years ago this month after a life that linked her forever with Stirling Castle, Linlithgow Palace and Edinburgh Castle. 

But Mary of Guise and was quite a woman. Imagine this, you’re the daughter of one of the greatest families in Renaissance France and have just been widowed, one son has died and the other is sickly. Soon afterwards, in 1538, you reluctantly marry James V of poor, cold, wet Scotland. You have two more sons, but they die, so does your 30-year-old husband – leaving you in a strife-torn foreign land with a week-old baby girl. What do you do, head home or stick around to fight for the rights of the infant (Mary, Queen of Scots) taking on all the noblemen trying to jostle you out of the way?

Mary of Guise chose the tough option. She used her intelligence, charm and political skill (plus French money and troops) to outwit her rivals and become ruler of Scotland. Despite English invasions, political feuds and the gathering storms of the Protestant Reformation, Mary stood firm for her daughter, the Auld Alliance with France, and the Catholic Church.

In 1560, in her mid-40s and dying from dropsy, she used her ebbing strength to try to rally support for her forces that were pinned down by Scots Protestants and the English in the fortified port of Leith. Within days of her death the French gave up and the Auld Alliance, dating from the 1290s, was over. The Reformation triumphed.

Mary was the last bastion of so much and it all turned to dust. Then again, in 1561 her daughter returned to Scotland and began her famous reign. And Mary of Guise’ grandson, James VI and I, united the crowns of Scotland and England.

Oh, and if you’d like to know more I have helped create our new Mary of Guise Family Trail  Once you know her a little better I’m sure you’ll agree with me that there really was something about Mary.

Matthew Shelley, Historic Scotland Marketing Department.

I first joined the team as Senior Steward here in May 1998. The Great Hall restoration was in its final 18 months and I watched it emerge from its metal hood and scaffolding, gloriously restored for its official opening by the Queen.

It was a huge aesthetic change for the castle and visitors flocked to marvel at the hall and hammerbeam roof within. For me at least, history is repeating itself.  I’ve not long returned to my post as Senior Steward after a three year secondment to find the palace in the final phase of its refurbishment. No metal roof, but within the walls there’s a huge metamorphosis underway.

Coming back has been a tale of changes and familiarity for me. Comfortingly familiar is the operational side of the castle; the stewarding and retail teams still enthuse about making sure each visitor has the very best service, visitors still travel from all over the world to explore the castle, and the Great Hall and Chapel Royal still ring to the sound of merrymaking as clients of our functions team enjoy evenings of banqueting.

The castle has seen many changes, in the buildings themselves and the people and culture around them. It was a military stronghold that became a royal residence, and was later a garrison fortress again, before becoming one of the top five visitor attractions in Scotland.

Stirling Castle has witnessed many key events. There were the battles of Stirling Bridge in 1297 and Bannockburn in 1314. Later there was the marriage of James IV to Margaret Tudor that paved the way for his great grandson, James VI and I, to take the throne of England. From being the childhood playground of Mary, Queen of Scots to John Knox and the Reformation, Stirling Castle has stood high on its volcanic pedestal and watched it all happen; strong and silent, a comforting constant on the landscape of the Forth valley.

And change continues. Visitors enjoy the splendid Argyll’s Lodgings on tours which now leave from the castle, benugo our new caterers in the Unicorn Café have brought a whole range of new and exciting foods, and of course there’s the palace.

I wasn’t born in Stirling so can’t claim to be a ‘son of the rock’ (my rock would be Edinburgh). But coming back is like coming home; safe, familiar and welcoming. With the palace tantalisingly close to completion I know that many visitors will be planning to come back to the castle to see the butterfly finally emerge from its cocoon. When they do, they will receive the same warm welcome that I did on my return, and enjoy yet another change in this castle’s long, proud and continuing history.

By Gary D’Arcy, Senior Steward.