One of Scotland's three Harris Tweed mills has been saved from the threat of closure, securing 27 jobs.

Carloway Mill chairman Derek Reid said the business needed between £200,000 and £250,000 to stay afloat after running into financial difficulties.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) turned down an appeal for a bailout and the firm was put up for sale before a refinancing deal was announced on Friday.

Carloway Mill owners Harris Tweed Textiles said operating costs have risen by more than 30% in recent years, while the price of tweed has fallen by 10%.

HIE has given the company grant funding totalling £418,800 over the last ten years, including a £90,000 grant in November last year.

The firm, which supports around 60 jobs, has a full order book until the end of April.

Major employer

Carloway is the smallest of three mills producing Harris Tweed in an industry which employs around 380 people in the Western Isles.

At its height in in the mid-1960s, around 1200 weavers worked to produce seven million metres of cloth every year.

Sales fell into decline in the 1980s, partly due to cheaply mass-produced imitation fabrics, and the industry came dangerously close to disaster.

Harris Tweed has enjoyed a revival in recent years as a luxury fashion brand and is the only fabric in the world protected by its own act of parliament, which means it can only be produced in the Hebrides.