Pubs, hotels and restaurants across Scotland began operating under a 10pm curfew on Friday last week.
The hospitality sector was ordered to follow the restriction in a bid to tackle the rising number of coronavirus infections.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the move after taking advice from senior health officials.
Reaction to the new rule from the hard-pressed pubs was mixed – but what do local licensees think of the measure?
Borgue Hotel owner Martin Thomson said: “With us being a village we are normally fairly empty by 10pm on normal nights anyway.
“It might be different if you are in Castle Douglas or Kirkcudbright and you were serving regulars right through. That’s when you would find it hard. So I don’t think it’s going to have much effect on us.
“One thing I would say is that any future lockdowns should be localised rather than imposed across the whole country. We have so few cases here compared with Glasgow or Edinburgh.”
At the Star Hotel in Twynholm owner Suzie Thorpe said: “The pub life has not come back. We have kept the two metres distancing throughout. People can’t stand at the bar.
“The pub atmosphere has not come back and it won’t come back for a long time. People have got into the way of drinking at home.
“To be honest on weekdays we close at 9.30pm or 10pm anyway. If we are open later there are only a handful of people so it won’t make a great deal of difference to us.”
In Dalbeattie, Kings Arms owner William Laing feared it would be “another nail in the coffin” of the trade.
“This will definitely affect us financially,” he said. “There is a disproportionate amount of blame being laid at the hospitality sector’s door.
“It’s hard enough as it is trying to make ends meet and keep all the balls in the air.”
Wilma Kerr of the Grapes Hotel in Springholm said: “It is better being closed at 10pm than having to close altogether.
“We can’t go through that again.”
