Innerleithen could be the site of the Borders latest microbrewery

Plans have been submitted to Scottish Borders Council for a craft beer brewhouse and visitor experience at 4 Traquair Road in Innerleithen.

A “new tap room retail and visitor experience” is also included in the plans from Durty Brewing – the brainchild of long-time friends Paul McGreal and Gordon Donald.

A design statement submitted to the council states: “The brewing facility on the site will be small scale, only producing product to be consumed within the tap room and in local establishments.

“The main brewing production for the company will be in another off-site location elsewhere.

“Visitors will be able to participate in tours of the brewery facility before sampling the finished product in the tap room.”

The brew kitchen will generally produce around 1000 litres per week, brewing one day per week, according to the design statement, with 90 per cent consumed on-site.

Paul said: “Gordon lives in Innerleithen and I live nearby, so it’s local to us and Innerleithen is a fantastic, thriving town and one of the groups of people we are trying to attract into the tap room are people who are into outdoor activities, biking and walking and those kinds of things and Innerleithen has a lot of those people and is perfectly placed as an outdoor activities hotspot.”

The former bike shop was originally a woollen knitting mill and has been empty for a number of years.

If approved the venue would operate on a limited basis, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, from about 6pm to 10pm.

Paul added: "The building itself is not in great condition and so in part this is also about bringing that building back to life really and completing its restoration and giving it a purpose.

"Gordon and I have chatted about this for a long time, having those sort of ‘woudn’t it be great if...’ conversations for a few years now.

"We’ve known each other for a long time and we like a beer and both like outdoor stuff.

"During lockdown at the back end of last year we recognised the opportunity and decided this was the right time to take it forward.”