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The Guardian have published a short list of green places to stay in the UK and Ireland, which includes an entry for Langdon Beck YH:

This is the YHA’s greenest and highest hostel. From the dining room and lounge there are wonderful views over the North Pennines. Evening meals are served in the 31-bed hostel, which has a range of local real ales and organic wines. A wind turbine and solar panels generate more half of the power, and rainwater is harvested from the roof.

Nice to see a hostel other than the usual Whitby, National Forest or London hostel getting some limelight.

What is it about the Western Lakes hostels and the environment? Over the last couple of years we’ve reported on a number of green initiatives in that part of the world, most recently an eco-boiler at Eskdale and exciting plans for Black Sail.

Now Eskdale are in the news again. According to the Green Building Press, they’ve been installing new insulation in their loft that’s made from sheep’s wool instead of the usual, but less planet-friendly fibreglass.

Thermafleece insulation is made by Penrith company Second Nature, and can be bought from specialist stockists all over the country if you fancy doing something similar in your own loft.

With the festive season almost upon us, what do you get the hill walker in your life? Yet another pair of gloves or socks? A pin-up of Julia Bradbury? Perhaps not. How about a stretch of Lakeland footpath?

Fix the Fells has been featured on these pages before – it’s a partnership run by the Lake District National Park Authority, The National Trust and Natural England to repair Lake District paths and combat erosion in the future. All their work is heavily dependent on public fund-raising.

This year they’re running a Fix a Fell for Christmas campaign. Simply donate a sum on your loved one’s behalf and it will go towards upland paths. Just £10 will replant vegetation alongside one metre of path, whilst £600 will pay for an hour of helicopter time. What’s more any amount you give will be tripled by the Heritage Lottery Fund, so a donation of £10 actually gets them £30.

But how do you wrap up a few square metres of Cumbria and put it under the tree? Don’t worry, they’ve thought of that. When you make a donation, a personalised certificate is generated for you to print out and give as your gift.

But remember, a Lakeland footpath isn’t just for Christmas…

The YHA’s most remote youth hostel looks set for an healthy and environmentally friendly future. According to a report in The Westmorland Gazette, the YHA has agreed a new 25 year lease that will assure the hostel’s continuing role in the network.

In addition, the hostel will be fully refurbished next year, including a hydro-electric power generator and other eco-friendly features  – fruits of the Ennerdale and Black Sail appeal that was launched two years ago. The whole scheme forms part of the Wild Ennerdale project – an attempt to return the remote valley as far as possible to its natural state.

Thankfully for fans of the warden’s legendary curries, hostel meals will continue to be served at Black Sail. An earlier plan had called for the catering service to be withdrawn in an effort to reduce vehicle runs to the hostel. This decision proved unpopular with members and led to a re-think. YHA Development Manager Simon Ainley said:

While we still need to take a Land Rover to the hostel to transport laundry, refuse, gas bottles and cleaning products, through proposed changes to energy use and storage capacity on site, we can also provide catering while keeping the number of journeys to an absolute minimum.

We have also agreed in principle, a scope of works with our partners which will see Black Sail improved and reduce its environmental impact while retaining its essence and unique character.

Despite being the antithesis of the plush, coach party-friendly establishments that YHA is often associated with these days, Black Sail remains a talisman of what hostelling is all about. It’s good to see its place in the network being kept safe.

Last year this site reported a £24,000 grant made to Eskdale YH for a biomass boiler. Well, it’s now been bought, installed and even officially opened (well, switched on I suppose) by the local mayor, according to the Whitehaven News.

The boiler will run on wood chippings from the nearby Miterdale Forest, a renewable form of energy that should lower the hostel’s carbon footprint. So next time you turn your own footprints towards Eskdale in search of a little warmth, you’ll be doing your bit for the environment too!

Eskdale YH has received a £24,000 grant towards the cost of a biomass boiler, according to the News & Star. The handout came from the Lake District National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund alongside 19 other green projects. Coming after work already done at Black Sail and Derwentwater, the Western Lakes appears to be a hot-spot for environmentally conscious hostelling!

Lockton Youth Hostel was amongst the winners of the White Rose Awards for Tourism, awarded each year by the Yorkshire Tourist Board and described as the region’s tourism “oscars”. The hostel won first prize in the Sustainable Tourism category. According to the YHA site:

[Lockton] is one of YHA’s first Green Beacon Youth Hostels featuring a rainwater harvesting system, live sedum roof, a compost toilet and photovoltaic cells.

You can read more about the awards in the York Press or on the Yorkshire Tourist Board website.

A group of environmentally minded Londoners are attempting to save Ivinghoe youth hostel, according to a report in Hemel Hempstead Today. Their intention is to convert part of the hostel into an environmentally friendly communal living area, whilst retaining the rest of it as a hostel. A scheme to make a reality TV show about the whole enterprise has (mercifully) been shelved.

Plans are “still in the very early stages” (they’d better get a move on as the place closes at the end of September!), so it is not known whether the putative hostel would remain in the YHA network or not.

Prominent on the front page of the YHA web site at the moment is a link to their Ennerdale and Black Sail Appeal, a £250,000 project to upgrade these two hostels in the light of future changes to the Ennerdale valley.

The Wild Ennerdale plan that is coming into play as Forestry Commission plantations are cleared calls for the valley to be returned to nature, with native broad leaf woodland replacing conifers. The forest track that currently allows supplies to be driven to Black Sail hostel will disappear, and the hostel will need to become more self-sufficient. Improvements will include solar and wind powered generators, and composting toilets. Supplies may be brought in by pony!

The campaign was given a boost this morning when Sir Chris Bonnington was interviewed about it on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. A report later appeared on the BBC News web site.

A day’s walk away at Derwentwater YH they are also doing their bit for the environment. According to this BBC report they’ve just installed a turbine that will generate 40% of their electricity. Perhaps wisely, the system relies on rain, rather than on sunshine or wind, being powered by a beck which runs through the hostel grounds. As well as saving the planet, the scheme will save YHA £4000 a year in electricity bills.

If you wish, you can donate to the Black Sail appeal online.

According to The Guardian there are plans afoot to make YHA’s most isolated hostel into their most environmentally friendly:

The most remote mountain refuge in England is to test a sustainability plan that could see supplies depend on a two-hour trek on horse or by foot. Wind power, solar panels and green technology are expected to maintain the walkers’ and climbers’ foothold at Black Sail in the Lake District.

Read the complete article