Grand opening celebrates Morebattle community's pub takeover

A village pub in the Borders is to hold a grand opening to mark the latest community buyout success in the region.The project to purchase the more than 250-year-old Templehall Inn in Morebattle near Kelso - which closed after the Covid pandemic - was launched in early 2024.Having already saved the village shop, locals created the Morebattle Community Hub and Pub (MCHP) community benefit society, and secured £230,000 in grants while raising nearly £100,000 from a share issue.That funded the buyout which will culminate in the grand reopening of the refurbished pub on Saturday.
Morebattle village - with a population of just over 300 - sits on the popular St Cuthbert's Way walking route that runs from Melrose to Holy Island.The refurbished inn - backed by funding from the Scottish Land Fund and South of Scotland Enterprise - is already attracting overseas visitors and it is hoped more will follow.Tenants Sharon and Alan Reid moved from the Tushielaw Inn near Selkirk last month and have already started serving food and delivering throughout the area.Roddy Murray, who chairs MCHP, admitted he had been stunned by how an acorn of an idea had grown into a huge community effort.
He said: "The steering group had a vision with all the stages of funding and planning that goes into something like this, but you do always wonder at the back of your mind if it will have the level of support that you need to make it sustainable in the long-term."What we've seen in the last eight weeks or so since we officially purchased the building is tremendous support, with people really buying into it."He said that was essential to its long-term success.
"It's got to be financially sustainable," Roddy added."There were funds available to purchase and refurbish, but it has to stand on its own two feet, and provide an income for the tenants moving forward."There will still be community support there, but it can't limp through being subsidised, and we don't think there is any concern on that score."We're confident now that it will be well-used as a community facility."
Roddy said he had been amazed at the number of people from across the area who had "really got stuck in" to ensure they got the facility they wanted.Many of them will join the celebrations on Saturday - from 15:00 to 23:00 - to mark what the community has achieved.

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He said: 'There seem few locally who would oppose the CDLT's sale of the 22,000-acre South Sleat Estate. There are around 200 crofters there, but their rights are well enshrined in law, so it makes very little difference to them who the landlord is. 'But although many want to preserve Armadale Castle and grounds and the rest of the businesses, there is not a single building on that estate that doesn't need work. We've heard the suggestion about £4million worth of investment is needed to bring the grounds up to standard.' The ruined B-listed castle is currently off-limits to the public until remedial works can make it safe. 'We feel part of the problem is the trust is run by absentee trustees – at the moment, the closest one lives in Yorkshire,' said Dr Williamson. 'They've got no sense of this place, no idea of the community. They have no clue what's happening on a day-to-day basis.' His 'worst nightmare' would be a buyer trying to turn it into a private house: 'The risk is it gets split up or bought as a trophy by someone who doesn't really know and care about its significance. Perhaps they look to knock down the castle and build a big house.' Dr Williamson said it had been very hard to find out any information about the CDLT's intentions as its relationship with the community was 'effectively non-existent'. He said the community council had been barred from any local conversations around the future of the estate. Eyebrows have been raised at the failure of the CDLT to make a go of things given the largesse of its chief backer, the Glencoe Foundation, down the years. It has lavished CDLT with grants totalling more than £2million in the past five years alone, with almost £1million paid out in 2021, when the impact of the Covid pandemic was at its height. CDLT claimed the pandemic hammered income and was catastrophic for the estate. 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The trust said it aims to retain the archive and library and create a 'world-class immersive, interactive digital platform' to display its collection. But battle lines have been drawn. This clan feud has only just begun.