Showground manager David Smith is retiring.
At the age of 69 he has decided that “there are some distilleries on the west coast of Scotland to be investigated.”
He has been in the job since the year 2,000 and is known to thousands of people who use the showground at show time and at any one of over 70 other events that use it as a venue each year.
His life at sea began as a navigating apprentice at the age of 17. He finished up as a master mariner with a foreign-going certificate.
That meant he could work all over the world – and he did!
At the back end of that career he was in Angola - “a dangerous place” – where he saw regular armed hold-ups and he decided it was time for a change.
There has been no let-up in pressure with his current role. During show week he clocks up around 108 hours of work.
But none of what he has overseen at the showground over the years could have been achieved, he says, without the help of a dedicated team.
“They are brilliant. All part-timers and experts at what they do and without exception, they are enthusiastic even given the need for such early starts and late finishes,” he said.