A PEEBLESSHIRE restaurant has been forced to close permanently because of the coronavirus pandemic, the owners have announced.

The Old Bakehouse – on Main Street in West Linton – has shut its doors, with Fiona Ingram describing it as “a heart-rending decision”.

Ms Ingram also operates the Gordon Arms Hotel in the village and has decided to merge the Old Bakehouse with the site on Dolphinton Road.

“It’s purely down to the pandemic,” said Ms Ingram about the Old Bakehouse closure. “In the last year, the Gordon Arms has barely been open and we’ve closed it three times.

“We didn’t want to lose both pubs,” she added. “We could move our food services into the Gordon Arms where we’ve got the rooms and the bar so it’s a much nicer facility on the whole.”

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Ms Ingram, 51, has lived in West Linton for around 25 years and has run the Old Bakehouse for the past decade.

Asked if she was sad to be leaving the Main Street site, Ms Ingram said: “Oh my goodness, yes!

"In the depths of this last lockdown I would be lucky to get three hours of sleep a night.”

Ms Ingram added that part of the decision to move solely to the Gordon Arms was to keep members of staff on the books.

The decision to close was posted on the Old Bakehouse Facebook page recently, with Ms Ingram saying that within 24 hours the community had already offered "masses of support".

Like the majority of those in the hospitality sector, the past year has been heavily disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown restrictions.

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However, Ms Ingram said she is “excited” to be reopening this week with mainland Scotland moving to Level 3 on Monday (April 26).

“We’re going to put our heart and soul into it here and we’re going to give it a go,” she said.

From Monday, pubs and restaurants were allowed to reopen indoors until 8pm, but with no alcohol.

Alcohol is allowed in outdoor settings such as beer gardens.

The Gordon Arms will be open from this Friday (April 30) at 2pm.