A historic distillery could be saved after the Arran Brewery received a £500,000 grant from Historic Scotland to help with the site's preservation.

Arran Brewery will work with Scottish Canals and Falkirk Council to redevelop the site of the former Rosebank Distillery in Falkirk.

The brewery intends to open a bottling facility and a new Brewery and Micro Distillery on the site. The Brewery will be called the Forth and Clyde Brewery Falkirk while the micro distillery will be named the Camelon Distillery.

The beers the brewery will produce have been market tested under the code name 'zodiac'. Other brews tested under the titles Aries, Gemini, Cancer and Taurus will become tribute brands to the Aitken's Brewery of Falkirk, which was founded in 1740 and took its brewing water from the site of the distillery.

Managing Director of the Arran Brewery said " This has been a long struggle to get support for this site from the Scottish Government and this reflects the dilemma with the site.  While we want to maintain the historic character of the site and open it to the public, at the same time we need to secure its on-going economic success by running a profitable business there. These two elements are proving difficult to reconcile. 

"While this grant goes a long way towards achieving our goals  we are not out of the woods yet, the latest issue is the likely classification of the buildings as "Abandoned" this will clearly kill any prospects of running a business of this type from the site as modern building regulations, if they are to be fully applied, will not let us run an economically viable business from this historic site and maintain the buildings as they are currently. So while I welcome this grant with open arms I am not counting any chickens yet, there is a long way to go before we see this site restored and sustainable. But as they say Rome was not built in a day, and with the support of Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Canals, Falkirk Council and Historic Scotland slowly but surely we are moving forward".