Great Tapestry of Scotland to go on show at new permanent gallery

• Video report by Jennifer Cordingley

It's taken over one thousand stitchers and countless of hours of hard work but one of the world's biggest community arts projects has found its home in Galashiels.The Great Tapestry of Scotland Visitor Centre is expected to draw more than 50,000 visitors a year, and generate nearly £1m for the Borders economy.

Scottish Author Alexander McCall Smith, who helped come up with the idea for the tapestry, said, "It occurred to me that wouldn't it be wonderful to have a tapestry that dealt with a whole range of Scottish history. Off it went, and by some wonderful miracle, it worked."

It was designed by artist Andrew Crummy and teams of stitchers around Scotland from a narrative written by the writer and historian Alistair Moffat. It is made up 160 linen panels of 300 miles of wool (enough to lay the entire length of Scotland from the border with England to the tip of the Shetland in the North Atlantic).

The massive artwork, which is more than 140m long, will be housed in the purpose-built multi-million pound gallery in Galashiels.

It was visited by over 350,000 people when it previously toured Scotland.

The tapestry's new £7m home was originally planned to be based at Tweedbank, but after local opposition the decision was taken to build the centre in Galashiels, with the hope that it would regenerate the town.

The project was due to be completed by spring 2021, but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The centre is now ready and is due to open to the public on the 26th August.