I have been working on a series of articles about independent hostels which have been part of the YHA. For some, like Kirkby Stephen, their sales date back to 20 years ago, to when the YHA launched its Enterprise Scheme.
I have been working on a series of articles about independent hostels that were once part of the YHA.
Some of these are very recent projects, following the sale of over 20 youth hostels during the last few years, while others date back to the early 2000s, when the YHA launched its first franchise scheme—the Enterprise Scheme—in conjunction with a large-scale sale of rural hostels.
This Enterprise Scheme has now been replaced (in 2026) by the YHA Partnership sceheme
You can see all the hostel in our network that were previously YHA or SYHA hostels on our Previously Youth Hostels page.
Not all the hostels on this page were produced by sales of YHA hostels. The hostels on this page left the Youth Hostel networks at different times over the years, some with buildings that never belonged to the YHA/SYHA but were lent to them by farms, or charities and organisations with a similar ethos, of allowing city workers and young people to enjoy the countryside.
When I approached Denise Robinson from Kirkby Stephen Hostel for some ideas for an article about her hostel, she wrote some lovely text herself. This was too good to use just for inspiration, so I have published the whole article under her name. You can read it here:
Kirkby Stephen Youth Hostel
Denise bought the hostel around 2008, although it had been independent for a while by then.
In the early 2000s, the YHA was selling rural hostels and had just launched the Enterprise Scheme, a method by which sold hostels could franchise back into the YHA network. It was thought that this method would allow loss-making youth hostels to be operated profitably as small businesses.
This has indeed proved true, and through hard work and good hosting, some of these hostels have proved profitable to this day, although not all of them as part of the YHA network.
Kirkby Stephen Hostel left the YHA network in 2010.
I have met Denise on several occasions, and her reputation as a welcoming and friendly host travels far and wide.