By John Knox
I can report that the oldest independent hostel in Scotland is still in business and still coping with tired and hungry pilgrims, still drying their clothes and still providing a safe haven from the midges.
Gerry’s Hostel at Craig, near Achnashellach in Glen Carron, opened in 1964. It’s an old railway cottage and the train rattles past the front door several times a day as it makes its way between Inverness and Kyle of Lochalsh.
Gerry Howkins, and his white beard, has lived here for the past half-century, happily keeping the traditions of the 1960s alive, with iron bunk beds, a log fire, a long wooden table with dripping candles and a cassette player. He proudly boasts “No TV”. There’s certainly no Wi-Fi and not much mobile-phone reception either. Peace, perfect peace.
But he has one of the best drying rooms in the business and a shower that even I can figure out, which is more than can be said for the average Scottish hotel. All this for just £16 a night, plus £1 for a bedsheet and you pay for anything you need from the small food store or bring your own food with you.
I spent a very comfortable and peaceful week here last month, climbing the ten Munros in Glen Carron. Sometimes the hostel was empty, at other times it was completely full with walkers, cyclists and car-tourists from France and Italy who had spotted Gerry’s Hostel on the internet. They got the family rooms on the upper floor, the rest of us had to make do with the dormitory.
Gerry would descend each evening with his large black register, like Moses with the tablets of stone, and ask you to sign in and pay your dues. Then he would sit with his feet up in front of the fire and discuss the issues of the day, with a laugh thrown in between each sentence.
A surprising number of people don’t know such independent hostels exist. For them, Scotland only has B&Bs at £30 a night or hotels at £50 plus. But the Scottish Independent Hostels guidebook lists 120 establishments. A few, like Gerry’s, are under the owner’s name. So we have Saucy Mary’s, on Skye. Most, though, are obvious with regard to their whereabouts: Abernethy Bunkhouses, Dundee Backpackers. And some you have to guess at: Stravaigers Lodge (Fort Augustus) or Highlander Bunkhouse (Huntly).
All of these live alongside the official Scottish Youth Hostel Association’s 60 hostels and affiliates. And here again there is much misunderstanding. “What?”, people ask me in astonishment. “You don’t have to do a chore each day, or sleep in dormitories with 30 other smelly snorers of your own sex?”
The first SYHA hostel may have opened in 1931 – at Broadmeadows in the Borders – but things have changed considerably since then. There are now family rooms, or rooms you can book for your own party. There is often a fully staffed canteen in addition to the help-yourself kitchen. Most of the hostels have been completely modernised. The hostel in Oban, for instance, has just been given a £1m makeover. And the hostels in the cities have become as big as hotels. The Edinburgh hostel has 298 beds.
Cars are not banned – as many people still seem to believe – and you don’t have to be a “youth” to join the SYHA. But still the charges are affordable. You’ll pay around £17 for a night in a rural hostel, up to £25 for accommodation in the cities.
But the point of the hostels – whether official or independent – remains the same: to give the ordinary working man or women, student or pensioner, the chance of an exciting adventure away from home. I stayed in a hostel in Northern Ireland earlier this year which had a quote from Mark Twain above the door: “Travel is fatal to hatred, bigotry and prejudice”. And, as the hostel movement shows, it need not be only for the rich.
Donate to us: support independent, intelligent, in-depth Scottish journalism from just 3p a day
Related posts: