Here is the third of our new SYHA Website Historical Archive feature, Treasure Trove. Please feel free to send in your memories, additional information and corrections, or to request further historical features on your favourite hostel of former times, and we’ll do our best to provide pictures and information.

Picture 1, Workmen toil on the roof of the Broadmeadows cottages before the official opening.

The early Border Chain of hostels – Part 1, 1931.
As we approach SYHA’s 80th birthday in 2011 it is interesting to reflect on how the very first Scottish hostelling ideas grew very quickly into the border chain of hostels. The Association’s initial activities were centred on a small group of enthusiasts in Edinburgh, though predictably there was strong competition from Glasgow, Dundee/Perthshire and Aberdeen to forge their own hostel chains. Until 1966 Edinburgh acted as the SYHA’s national hub, as well as a regional centre, and it was from here that the greatest early impetus came.

On 23 January 1931 Scott Morton wrote in the Scotsman newspaper about the intentions of the Edinburgh Interim Committee of the proposed [Scottish] Youth Hostels Association. It had already started surveying routes in the Border country along which to adapt existing buildings, or to erect new ones, suitable for use as hostels. The areas of interest were West Linton, Lyne Water, Manor Water, Ettrickdale, the Melrose district, Allan Water (Melrose), Westruther, Cranshaws, Longformacus (and the central Lammermuir district), Gifford, Garvald and Lauderdale. Within months several of these named localities could boast a hostel, (though some were never so blessed) and within two years the various chains and loops of hostel walking routes south of Edinburgh would enable hostellers to proceed from Edinburgh, in day stages, all the way to YHA hostels in Cumberland or Northumberland.

Broadmeadows was SYHA’s first hostel, and will soon be an octogenarian. By 8th April 1931 workmen were completing repairs on a pair of old cottages in the Yarrow Valley, and the hostel opened on 2 May. Already, by this time, other sites were being investigated. Thirlestane, a small farmhouse at Ettrick, was opened on 20 June 1931. Chapelhope hostel, a redundant school near St Mary’s Loch, and Shortwoodend, on Moffat Water, were to follow in July. With break-neck speed, Langhaugh hostel, a timber hut, was planned, and erected in seventeen days by Scott Morton’s own Edinburgh firm, largely to his own design. The Border’s fifth hostel was thus opened barely three months after Broadmeadows, on 1 August 1931, an astonishing reflection of the enthusiasm and pioneering spirit of SYHA’s first adventurers.
In 1931 hostels were starting up in other regions of Scotland, at Loch Ossian on Rannoch Moor, Birnam near Dunkeld, Inverbeg on Loch Lomond, and Auchterawe, near Fort Augustus. It was the Border Chain that first established the idea of tramping from one hostel to the next in a sustained tour, however.

In the next issue of Treasure Trove I’ll be detailing the development of the Border Chain from this point up to the outbreak of war. There are one or two very obscure hostels en route, and a few frustrated plans.

Picture 2, This historic scene is captioned Broadmeadows, 2 May 1931. Lord Salvesen declaring open the first hostel in Scotland. Picture 3, Broadmeadows, almost 80 years on.

Picture 4, Thirlestane Hostel, fifteen miles from Broadmeadows, was a farmhouse near Ettrick village. It was opened by Lord Napier and Ettrick; handbooks described it as an old ivy-covered farmhouse on the banks of the Ettrick River. The facilities consisted of two common rooms and three bedrooms, an unusual balance of accommodation allowing for 9 men and 14 women. The hostel was in the long coach-house adjoining the farmhouse, and perhaps in the house too. There was a special bathing pool and fishing in the river, by permission of the Laird, and a small library of novels presented by Lady Napier. Thirlestane Hostel closed in 1950. Today the house survives, though the coach-house has been demolished. Picture 5, An atmospheric shot of the early Chapelhope hostel. This was supplanted in the 1940s by the neighbouring farmhouse, which could offer greater accommodation, though the schoolhouse continued to be used for overspill for a time.
It was last used as a hostel in 1947, and the farmhouse in 1957. The school is now a private residence.

Picture 6, Shortwoodend was a pioneer hostel in that it was opened in their own home through the enthusiasm of the residents and wardens, Mr and Mrs Hope, on 4th July 1931. The couple were legendary for their welcome, and held in the highest esteem by hostellers. The house was in an idyllic setting five miles north-east of Moffat, a stone bungalow of superior construction, where women could sleep in some luxury. As was the way of things, the men’s dormitory was in a quaint barn to the rear, a vertical ladder gaining access to a small loft. The hostel had to close after the summer season 1946 due to the serious illness of Mr Hope. Picture 7, Mr and Mrs Hope share a pot of tea, and no doubt a yarn, with hostellers. This illustration is one of the many glorious depictions of hostelling life discovered in a pile of old lantern slides recently at Head Office.

Picture 8, Langhaugh (pronounced locally Langie) was another hostel in a prime location, at the head of Manor Water, and ideally situated a day’s walk to Chapelhope Hostel over the hills (SYHA postcard). Describing the official opening, the Scotsman announced:
The hostel, which is situated eight miles from Peebles, has been built by Mr Stewart Morton, ex-Master of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh and head of the firm of Scott Morton, of Edinburgh. The building has brick foundations with a superstructure of the best quality wooden boarding. The walls are white and the windows are red, in the Norwegian fashion. The men's dormitory is at one end, and the women's at the other, the centre of the building being taken up with the common room. This room is equipped with a fine brick fireplace of Mr Morton's own design. It will also be fitted with the usual hostel furniture, consisting mainly of plain tables and stools. Each dormitory can hold twelve or fourteen members. The beds are of the two-tiered type, which is now the standard fitting for the Border hostels.
Langhaugh was given up shortly after the war, in favour of the substantial Barns House Hostel, further down the valley. It was SYHA policy at that time to replace its stock of timeworn huts with substantial mansions (also frequently timeworn). It languished as a shepherd’s bothy until about ten years ago, when it was demolished.

John Martin
SYHA Volunteer Archivist
April 2010

Please send contributions and suggestions to: archive@syha.org.uk