Innerleithen’s promised mountain bike innovation centre will not now be housed inside a renovated textile mill, after its costs ballooned. A redeveloped Caerlee Mill had been the preferred site for the multi-million pound Mountain Bike Innovation Centre, but the building’s condition is so poor as to make preserving the structure as a working bike hub financially unviable.

The good news though is that South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE), which is pushing the project forward, is now determined to either demolish the old building and start from scratch, or find an alternative site at Innerleithen. “There’s a challenge and that’s caused a delay but we’re still absolutely committed to this and the funding is still on offer,” Paul Cathrow from SOSE said. 

Innerleithen has some of the UK’s best mountain biking, opening an MTB innovation centre would cement this status

Back in 2023 the project got the green light from the local council, the plan to bring together mountain bike development, testing, athlete training and new products into a single site. This centre of excellence was to cost some £19 million, paid for in Government grants, and would raise £138 million and generate 400 jobs over 10 years. It would also cement Inners as one of the UK’s most important mountain bike spaces, a location effectively saved by mountain biking itself.

It fell apart this summer though, after surveys showed 80% of the building would need to be replaced. SOSE told me this survey work was only possible after actually buying the building, with planning permission, stabilisation, asbestos and oil removal all required even before the surveyors arrived.

SOSE has secured the Caerlee Mill structure, but it won’t be viable as an mtb hub

“We had to do all that before we even got to the intrusive survey,” Cathrow says. What they found was worse even than the worst case scenarios. “There’s a timber ring lintel, for example, that goes around the entire building and not just over the windows and doors. When that needs replacing, as it does here, you need to remove the roof and the walls,” he adds. 

SOSE now needs to work fast to secure funding for the innovation centre, money that is still available but must be spent by 2031. There are two options that have already been put to the community, the first is to demolish the current structure at Caerlee Mill and build on the site. The second is to build on a greenfield site.

Good to have a mountain biker pulling the strings, with Paul Cathrow from SOSE

“But we do need to make that decision before Christmas,” Cathrow says. “At the moment we don’t have a preferred option, we’ve gone back to the community to ask. Our priority has to be on securing the funding, on which option is quickest and most affordable.”

The community is crystal clear, they want the Caerlee Mill site to have a future

The news of rising costs and the unaffordability of redeveloping Caerlee Mill came out in a public meeting earlier this month, where it was revealed the mill could be stabilised and preserved as a structure for £15 million, but not become a usable space in any way, which would cost double. 

“The community is crystal clear,” Cathrow says. “They want the Caerlee Mill site to have a future and they also want the innovation site in the area. 

There’s still the same energy and drive and determination to deliver

The goal then is to open the innovation centre wherever it should be in 2027. SOSE is keen to stress part of the plan to bring in its partners from Napier University will be ahead of that deadline too, bringing the academic side of mountain biking including testing and product development sooner still. “There’s still the same energy and drive and determination to deliver,” Cathrow  says. 

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