WORK to breathe new life into a hotel which closed its doors nearly 40 years ago is continuing.

Planning permission to transform the former Dolphin Inn and Hotel was given last November.

Jo Waddell, who is behind the plans, wants to turn the Queens Road building into a boutique hostel for young people and active tourists.

The work inside the building is continuing, after previously being halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, a separate planning application has been lodged with East Lothian Council for new signs – The Dolphin Inn – on the building.

When the initial plans for the building were lodged, a plea was made to save the building “before it’s too late”.

The bar, on the ground floor of the building, closed in February 2013 but the upstairs, which was used as a hotel, had not been in use for nearly four decades.

That meant the building, which will now have 10 bedrooms, bathrooms and a family suite, as well as a manager’s flat, was in a poor state.

Pippa Swan, chairwoman of the town’s community council, previously told the Courier how she had seen inside the building and described it as being “in a terrible state of repair”.