There has been a hostel in Kirkby Stephen since 1931

Previously a Methodist Church, Kirkby Stephen Hostel was opened by the YHA in 1981. It replaced the first Kirkby Stephen hostel sited in the Friends’ Meeting House (40 High Street) which was opened in 1931. The latter was the first hostel to be opened in the Lakeland region. When the current Kirby Stephen Hostel was opened in 1981 it received praise for its imaginative conversion, using original features, which are still in evidence today. The ‘new’ hostel went into private ownership in 2006, it continued to operate under the YHA Enterprise Scheme until 2011 when it went fully independent. It joined our Independent Hostel Network in 2008.