A SCOTS family will reach a half-a-century milestone as owners of The Original Rosslyn Inn later this month.
Graeme Harris and his son Richard are set to release a string of videos to celebrate everyone involved with the Original since they took the reins in 1973.
The videos are set to act as a tribute to the Inn;s ‘extended family’, featuring a variety of faces from staff members to loyal customers.
The dad-and-son duo will also host two VIP parties at the hotel on March 27, with the guest list for one to include their beloved customers.
Richard, 41, said: “We feature regulars including Tam Murray, who is almost 80 and worked in the pub when he was a 10 year-old-boy, as well as the staff and family.
“There are a few anecdotal and urban legend tales that will only ever be told on the barstools of the pub!
“We are having a couple of parties – one for trade partners and industry colleagues, and another for our customers.
“The guest list for that one will be made by randomly selecting names from our vast mailing list. We just wish we could invite them all.”
Originally a local pub, Graeme Harris arrived with his parents to turn the Inn from a local pub to a hospitality benchmark.
The 71-year-old said: “My dad wanted to harness my ‘youth and enthusiasm’ and create a family business.
“I take great pride in seeing Richard carry on the tradition. I am hoping for the fourth generation of Harris’s to run the business.
“And they and Richard have an advantage on me – they are Roslin natives. I’ll always be a ‘townie’ until my dying day!”
Despite Roslin being just a small town in Midlothian, its 16th century Rosslyn Chappel featured in The Da Vinci Code, and it is also the hometown of the first cloned animal, Dolly the Sheep.
Graeme added: “The village has grown and changed so much since my arrival.
“It’s doubled in size, and we’ve had the world’s media focused on us with Dolly and The Da Vinci Code. I feel honoured and privileged to have been here to see all of that.”
The Original has hosted popular guests throughout the years like Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott.
As for many others in the hospitality industry, it has not been a steady ride for the last five decades. The hotel has faced difficult times, with the pandemic as the forefront runner.
Graeme continued: “Nothing prepared us for the Covid pandemic and lockdowns. To be told to close after serving guests every day since 1973 was a very harrowing time.
“Everything about it was hard – staying shut, keeping all of our staff and placing them on furlough, worrying about reopening, how we could meet restrictions, face masks, social distancing – all of it was so difficult. But we got there.”
However, despite the ‘cost of doing’ crisis as the 71-year-old calls it, the family plan to improve their business and become more eco-friendly, with help from the Midlothian Business Gateway.
Richard said: “Our major goal for the next phase of the Original is to modernise our conservatory and create a space that brings the garden inside.
“We’re exploring ground source heat pumps, consulting with planners about solar panels, and are excited about the advances in battery storage.”
Modernisation is also a key aspect of their vision of the future, aiming to expand their so-called ‘hospiTALEity’.
“We plan to have QR codes around the premises that will answer a lot of the guests’ questions about the legends of the hotel and the village”, Richard added.
“Most of all we continue to do what we do because we love doing it, and we hope that shows in the services we provide.”
