Brewer Rob James set up the tiny Hillside Brewery from his Lumphanan home in 2006 and single-handedly produces bottle and cask-conditioned beers for shops in Deeside and Donside - almost 200 pints a week.

But he now hopes to move to larger premises at the activity park to progress his business.

"We've been looking for the right place to move our production to for some time now," said Rob. "The initial plan was to convert some of our own outbuildings, but eventually we realised that this would be too difficult, and would not accommodate any future expansion."

Ken Howie, owner of Deeside Activity Park, has now submitted a full planning application to Aberdeenshire Council for the proposed micro-brewery in a storage building at the Dess location.

"Deeside Activity Park has been our biggest customer over the past three years, and Ken Howie has always been very supportive," said Rob. "When we approached Ken with the idea of setting something up at Dess, he was very enthusiastic. The move will benefit both of us, and we are really looking forward to it."

He said they hoped to have the brewery installed at the turn of the year, and to be up and running as soon after that as is possible - increasing their capacity to more than 3,000 pints a week.

If given the green light for the brewery, Rob will have to buy new equipment for his new premises.

"We will have four regular beers, including the popular Macbeth, and two occasional beers - Lady Macbeth for the summer (the raspberry beer), and a whey stout called Talorcan," he said.

"All our beers are named after historical characters from the North-east, allowing me to combine my loves of brewing and history. We even plan to have a Macbeth-fest next year to celebrate Lumphanan's link with our much-maligned monarch."

Ken Howie said: "This idea is just a case of two small, rural businesses joining forces for the good. It'll allow Rob to expand production - which he desperately needs to do - and will ensure our supply of the product as we're his biggest customer of Macbeth beer. Sometimes we have had to do without because he just can't produce enough!

"The micro-brewery will be an integral part of the park, as we are extending an existing building to house the brewery and new biomass plant, which will power and heat the brewery as well.

"We really hope this will encourage our visitor numbers - as we already have around 36,000 visitors per year - as well as benefiting Rob's business.

"The activity park has been really successful over the last five years and that was a diversification from farming. This is a further diversification from the activity park.

"There's not an awful lot for visitors to see in a micro-brewery, other than vats, but it's about the skill of the brewer and the story behind it - of Macbeth. The beer is a hook to hang the whole story of Macbeth and what happened in this area more than 1,000 years ago."

Mr Howie said he had been approached by a number of other businesses keen to relocate to his site.

He added that if planning consent were successful, they hoped to begin production around February next year.