YHA Grinton Lodge is closing for good on about 15 September 2026... :(
The YHA is trying to keep this quiet but they're about to close YHA Grinton Lodge in about a month's time having sold it off - sale price unknown but asking was £0.95 million. Lovely youth hostel in a beautiful setting and a real shame it's doomed. Doubt there's anything that can be done to stop this at such a late stage but spread the word just in case! And maybe visit for one last time if you've never been. It's a glorious location. Link: https://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/yha-grinton-lodge
Apparently the new owner intends to turn it into a wedding venue. This will likely require a planning permission application, so if you're unhappy about that keep your eye on the planning register (here: https://planning.richmondshire.gov.uk/online-applications/search.do?action=simple&searchType=Application and the postcode is DL11 6HS) and if enough people object to any proposed change, the new owners might have to keep it as a youth hostel.
As for *why* it's selling, I understand the YHA is in serious financial trouble due to some unwise investments including an expensive London youth hostel which they had to sell at a massive loss, carrying a heavy debt burden and ominously the business as a whole typically operating at an annual loss for many years. Grinton Lodge also needs very expensive renovations and itself makes a loss each year (despite getting the benefits of business rate reductions and no VAT from being a charity).
YHA current strategy is sell off a bunch of their youth hostels each year just to pay the bills until either (i) they start making profits again (they had a 5 year turnaround plan following Covid in 2020 which has spectacularly failed) or (ii) they run out of youth hostels to sell and maybe eventually even shut down.
YHA used to have several hundreds of hostels; under 100 left now (some franchised) and of which they're selling 10% just this summer, with more sales planned. Very sad.