North Ayrshire Council has granted planning permission for Scotland’s first Sake Brewery to be built at Dreghorn in Ayrshire.

Arran Brewery, the firm behind the development, also plans to build a visitor centre that aims to attract about 30,000 visitors a year to the area.

The plans include a bottling facility and beer hall along with a brewing school, and Brewing and distilling research and development centre as well as commercial laboratories for the drinks industry in Scotland.

The former Dreghorn Primary School site will house rotating exhibitions as well as permanent exhibitions about Japan, Brewing and Distilling.

The site currently employs six staff and this number will rise to around 30 as the project develops.

Managing director Gerald Michaluk said “We are very pleased to have received planning permission and will now be seeking building warrants so work can start in earnest. Currently the site is being refurbished and brought back up to its former glory. We will very stretched at the moment with two major developments on the go here at Dreghorn and at Loch Earn where a new brewery and visitor centre is being built.

“These are exciting times for Craft Breweries and especially Arran Brewery which has done particularly well with the success of Arran Blonde Scotland’s best selling packaged Craft Beer.”

Sake produced at Dreghorn will be almost all be sold in Japan, where the Arran Brewery currently sells beer.