Former cross-border ‘staging post’ pub on the market

A VACANT rural Co Tyrone pub complete with bed and breakfast business has come onto the market.

The Coach Inn is at Victoria Road in the village of Cloughcor, a few miles north of Strabane and fronting on to the main A5 which links Londonderry, Omagh and Enniskillen. Offers of over £179,000 are invited.

The premises comes complete with six en-suite bedrooms for bed and breakfast business.

It’s ready for occupation although the bar and lounge area requires renovation, according to selling agent Osborne King.

The agent said: “The vendors have not traded the business for a couple of years.

“However it provides a purchaser the opportunity to reopen the public house and bed and breakfast business.”

The property is set in a 0.6 acre site with a fully fitted and equipped bar/lounge with function room, a liquor licence and entertainment licence for 200 customers. The property extends over two levels, with a single storey to the rear.

The venue is understood to have been popular in its heyday and was still trading until early 2015. The long-established hostelry was regarded as a staging post for cross-border travellers to and from the North West.

Last month, Colin Neill, head of trade body Hospitality Ulster, said decisions by publicans to sell up reflected the pressures facing the pub industry. Publicans were facing rising costs from minimum wage increases, with over-25s’ hourly rate going up from £7.50 per hour to £7.83, and business rates which rose 1.5%. “As well as rising costs for business, there is also inflation for consumers, including a 4% increase in domestic rates — which leaves less disposable income for dining and drinking,” he added.