Manager Alistair Boyd at the refurbished Losehill Hall
A former national park learning centre will reopen as a youth hostel after a £2m refurbishment.
Losehill Hall near Castleton in Derbyshire was sold off by the Peak District National Park Authority as part of its response to 28 per cent budget cuts by the coalition Government.
YHA, which took over the hall, pledged it would continue to provide educational provision at the grade II-listed Gothic Victorian mansion.
The budget accommodation charity said it had transformed the building into an environmental learning, residential and activity centre for young people and holiday-makers.
YHA said the centre’s future as a youth hostel is now secure for at least 20 years.
YHA chairman Chris Darmon said: “This great new youth hostel will offer fantastic facilities for young people to learn about the natural environment, culture and history of the Peak District.
“We are really proud that through a partnership with the PDNPA we have retained this excellent centre.”
The existing Castleton Youth Hostel in the nearby village, which YHA says is outdated, will now close.
Richard Campen, director of operations for the Peak District National Park Authority, said: “We look forward to our learning and discovery team moving back into Losehill Hall to work with the YHA and other education partners to provide learning opportunities for residents and visitors to the Peak District national park.”
The hostel has 144 beds in 36 rooms and it is expected the accommodation and resources will be used by about 22,000 people each year.
The national park authority announced the closure of Losehill Hall in 2011, with the equivalent of 28 full-time redundancies in a bid to chop £250,000 a year off its budget.
It was built in 1882 as a private house. It became a holiday and education centre for the Co-operative Society in 1952, and the former Peak Park Planning Board took it over as a national park study centre in 1970.
Children and Families Minister Tim Laughton will officially reopen the building on 1 May.
