Duchess of Kirkcaldy: Flood closes pub for upto eight weeks

It comes after torrential rain and thunderstorms battered the Kingdom overnight.

Initial plans had been to reopen tomorrow, but after further assessment, the pub will need longer to dry out an replace damaged furniture and could be closed for as long as six-to-eight weeks.

Dallas Mackay, owner of The Duchess, said that water had come in through the roof and damaged the property extensively, including the electrics and all the sound equipment.

“It’s full scale damage. Because we’re an old building the roof is built like valleys so the water’s just filled up like a bath and it’s just went.

"It's taken down most of the ceiling, all the electrics are gone, the floor’s warped so we’ll need a whole new flooring.

"The tiles and the toilets are all damaged, booths and tables are all warped.

"The assessor has been in and he says it’ll be a full dry-out, which could take two-to-three weeks and it’ll be a full refurbishment after that.

"It’s been tough, we had £25,000 stock lost when covid hit, and our stock loss this week is going to be about £10,000.

"We’d been fully booked all weekend. Now we’re probably going to be shut for the next six-to-eight weeks.

"It’ll have to be a new roof and new ceiling and new electrics. All the sound equipment is ruined because it collapsed right in front of the stage.

"We’ll come back. We’ll strive to get open again. It might take a bit of time but we’ll be back.

"I’d like to thank everybody for their well-wishes. The support has been phenomenal.”