Hogmanay’s coming round again and I can’t believe it’ll be my 35th at the castle. I’ve seen so much happen in that time, starting out as an apprentice stonemason, and later becoming clerk of works. It was in that role I oversaw the huge projects to restore the Chapel Royal and the Great Hall. It’s when they were completed, around the Millennium, that stand out in my mind as a great, great time.

My daughter Kirsty was married in the Chapel Royal in June 1999, then in November I got to meet Her Majesty the Queen when she came to reopen the Great Hall. Then there were the New Year celebrations. The council organised a ceilidh and dinner for 700. Every part of the castle was used, the chapel and the hall, with people spilling out into the square. And when they’d danced themselves to a standstill and were all fully fed – then came the fireworks. It was spectacular.

A while after that I moved over to work in visitor services and started showing people round the parts of the castle I’d helped restore. More Hogmanays have come and gone since then. This year me, my wife and family will be up at the castle again, seeing the New Year in on the esplanade, listening to Sandi Thom and the other musicians. There’ll be fireworks and a pipe band. So we’re all keeping our fingers crossed for the right weather – dark, crisp and clear – just like that special night when we welcomed in the year 2000.

Willie McEwan, Visitor Services Manager