Join the walk up to the hostel, Blencathra Centre carpark 11:30am Sunday 1st July
Join Friends of Skiddaw House to celebrating 30 years since Skiddaw House first opened its doors as a hostel. There will be a led walk to Skiddaw House from Threlkeld (meet outside the Blencathra centre at 11:30) or make your own way up the mountain. Join us for tea, cake, old photos and stories in celebration of 30 years since Skiddaw House opened as a hostel. A few speakers will give a short talk or read a poem. The hostel will be open between 1 – 3pm.
Skiddaw House was built as a Games Keeper lodge and Shepherds Cottage around 1860. In 1970 the last residents moved out and Skiddaw House began to decline until 1986 when it was leased by John Bothamley. After much effort and expense John Bothamley handed the lease of a full operating simple hostel over to YHA. The YHA continued to operated Skidddaw House hostel until problems with the lease in 2002. By 2006 the House was again empty and worn but, under an initiative started by Martin Webster (the YHA warden from 1992 to 2000) the House was reopened in April 2007 as an independent hostel, affiliated to the YHA. The old YHA “Friends of Skiddaw House” group was reformed and incorporated early in 2007 as Skiddaw House Foundation, a Registered Charity, with the declared aim of maintaining the House as a hostel in the long term whilst retaining the principles of the YHA. Come and visit this historic mountain side hostel. Stay here for a real escape from it all; real log fires, real ales, no roads and no wifi! There are many interesting and crowd-free routes up Skiddaw, Blencathra, Great Calva and High Pike from the hostel, as well as several pubs and cafes within walking distance. Skiddaw House is 3.5 miles from the nearest road but you don’t need to carry a heavy bag up here; there’s a shop selling everything you need to cook.
Find out more about Skiddaw House Hostel