A Lochawe pub which was closed and boarded up for almost five years, re-opened on Friday (March 31) with a new name and a new look.

The Tight Line had been at the heart of village life for more than a century, as Loch Awe Hotel’s stables and coach house, then as a thriving cafe and bar – but after falling into decline, its doors closed in summer 2012.

After restoration, extensive refurbishment and the addition of accommodation, it has now opened as Ben Cruachan Inn.

Tracey Peedle, the project manager for Candleriggs Development (the company that owns the building) says they felt compelled to take the site on after watching it decay. “We would drive by and see what a state it was in, and think how sad it was, and how great it would be to bring it back to life,” she said.

While seeking to retain the building’s Victorian character, the new owners have made significant changes, increasing the depth of the windows to enhance the loch view, adding a front deck, creating a large open-plan bar area, and extending to incorporate five bedrooms.

They hope that as well as attracting tourists, the inn can regain its place as a community hub, and plan to offer coffee and afternoon tea and to encourage local events. The menu will use locally-sourced produce wherever possible and west coast ale, gin and whisky brands will feature prominently at the bar.

“It’s important to us that this is a welcoming place for locals and visitors – it will be completely accessible for all abilities, and we will be dog-friendly, family-friendly, and eco-friendly,” says Tracey. “We’ve got a great team of local staff who are really excited about being in the new-look building.”

After half a decade without a local, residents are also enthusiastic about having a village pub again.

Libby Cattanach was one of a group of Cruachan (The Hollow Mountain Visitor Centre) staff who were invited to call in after work on the opening night. “It has all been done really well,” she said. “the staff were welcoming and friendly and we enjoyed our tour.”

It was fitting that members of the Cruachan team were first to be served at the bar, as the power station and the pub have a long-standing connection.

Though the building was initially converted from a stable block to accommodate the staff of guests at Loch Awe Hotel, it became a pub after the Second World War, serving the influx of Hydro scheme workers. From the late-fifties onwards, it was filled with workers building Cruachan Dam and Power Station, who flocked there after a long shift on the mountain.

Alan Campbell, a Lochawe resident, lived upstairs in the Tight Line as a child in the late 1960s, when his mother, Mary, managed the cafe – then a separate room from the bar. He recalls the days when Lochawe was so busy that it not only supported two pubs (Carraig Thura and the Tight Line), it had four darts teams.

“There was a boom in the late Seventies and early Eighties, when Cruachan was being refurbished,” he recalls. “And for a long time after that you couldn’t get in on a Saturday at 5pm for all the fishermen. Bus-loads would come from Glasgow in the morning and be dropped off at different points around the loch – then they would all make their way back to the Tight Line to be picked up.

“There were some who came every week, and we got to know them so well that they seemed like locals – but when the loch was privatised the fishing clubs stopped coming”

Though Mr Campbell has fond memories of the old Tight Line, he is positive about what the new look pub can bring to the village.

“I think its a good thing that Lochawe will have a pub again,” he says. “The Tight Line may have been closed for five years, but locals feel we’ve been without somewhere to go out for even longer, because it got so run down. The fact that Ben Cruachan Inn is starting from scratch is fantastic – it’s a chance to win people over.”