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.