Three more youth hostels for sale
One building has not been used for four years and is in a ‘poor state of repair’
Published: 29/08/2008
A youth hostel in a community near Inverness has gone on the market for offers over £90,000.
Cannich Youth Hostel is the latest in a series of Highland hostels to be put up for sale by the Scottish Youth Hostels Association.
Kyleakin Youth Hostel and Aramdale Youth Hostel are also offered for sale from DMH Baird Lumsden, based in Edinburgh.
And an offer for a fourth at Loch Lochy, has been accepted, but the sale has yet to be completed.
The hostel, situated in the heart of Cannich, has not been occupied for more than four years.
It is a semi-detached timber clad building in “poor repair” on a site of just less than one acre.
Sellers say the site would be excellent for development, subject to planning permission, and would benefit from holiday and residential development.
In September the association, a not-for-profit body with charitable status, announced that it was closing seven of the network’s 53 hostels and selling the properties – including two on Skye and one at Loch Lochy.
It said it was using the money generated for reinvestment, adding that keeping them open would cost much more.
The decision followed an 18-month internal review, and closures are being implemented in phases, the first of which was in February with phase two by February, 2009.
Yesterday, an association spokeswoman said: “It (the sales) was a hard business decision to make. It was decided that the amount of money needed to bring them up-to-date would be better spent on the remaining hostels or invested in new hostels.”