A TWO-MAN brewery has taken the helm at East Lothian’s smallest pub.

Steve Holligan and David Mackinnon, from Winton Brewery, stepped behind the bar at Dunbar’s Station Yard Micropub at the beginning of the month.

Currently, the duo are only allowed to sell off-sales, due to the coronavirus lockdown preventing customers from entering the pub, but they were looking forward to once again welcoming people inside as soon as possible.

Steve said: “We’ve been looking for a while to find something like this.

“The Station Yard is unbelievable.

“We looked in Haddington, we looked in Gullane and we wanted to stay in East Lothian, where we are from and where the brewery is based.

“It was one of those things where you were scrolling through Facebook and this popped up.

“It was too good an opportunity and we got in touch with Gerard McPhillips [who had created the pub alongside his late business partner David McGee] and had a really good meeting with him. We have had a beer in the pub before and been in a few times and knew David really well.

“We are trying to carry it on in his memory and Gerard’s good faith.”

The former station lodge was transformed into East Lothian’s first micropub and opened its doors at the beginning of December 2017.

Gerard felt he was leaving the business in safe hands and said: “It does not feel like two years.

“It has been quite a rollercoaster of a ride and it was very exciting at the start. Unfortunately, David got ill within four months of opening and the gloss came off it.”

David McGee was forced to step aside in the spring of March 2018 after being diagnosed brain cancer. He died in October last year.

Gerard added: “We achieved what we wanted to achieve and we are pretty confident Winton Brewery will take it forward in the same vein.

“I absolutely feel that it has been left in good hands, and that was a big driver for accepting their bid because we did feel it would be in safe hands.”

Steve and David, who are originally from Haddington, have limited changes planned for the pub, which will feature beers from Winton Brewery’s range.

It was while sampling a home brew in Steve’s kitchen in Pencaitland that the friends decided to form their own brewery six years ago.

Now, they have four distinct beers: Peelywally, a zesty and citrusy IPA; Barry Swally, a hoppy and aromatic APA; Oh Ya Bassa, a peach and raspberry sour beer; and Stooty Fruit, a raspberry oatmeal stout.

Forty-one-year-old Steve felt the Micropub site was a fitting bookend, given the brewery’s base in West Barns, alongside the hugely successful Thistly Cross Cider.

Originally, the Station Yard, which is owned by Network Rail, was the stationmaster’s house, which he shared with his wife and seven children.

Between 1965 and 2005 the building and yard were used by T.Foggo & Son coal merchants and since 2005 the building had a variety of uses, including as a café and offices.