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To celebrate 80 years of Scotland’s Youth Hostels, SYHA – Hostelling Scotland is publishing later this year the first detailed history of all of its accommodation premises, written by the Association’s volunteer archivist, lifetime hosteller John Martin. An Illustrated Survey of SYHA’s Youth Hostels, 1931-2011 has been some 15 years in the making. The author’s work with the SYHA Archive has allowed the perusal of thousands of documents, minutes and photographs.

At 670 pages, A4 size, and with over 1,500 illustrations, including colour, this exhaustive Survey tells the story of each of SYHA’s 250-plus youth hostels, that together have provided beds for hostellers an astonishing 32 million times. The Survey describes for each hostel its location, openings and closings, facts and features and changes to its layout and method of working. There are maps and charts of annual overnight figures and many illustrations and hostel plans, drawn from the Archive, private collections and personal visits. The work is sprinkled with recollections and anecdotes from over 200 correspondents. Much detective work has been necessary to unearth the bones of some of the more obscure early premises.

Though the Survey is about youth hostels, many aspects of SYHA’s work and its impact on Scottish life are dealt with in its pages. Supplements deal with war-time hostels and unsuccessful hostel schemes. There are sections on SYHA officers and offices and a 16-page chart of every known annual bednight and capacity statistic.

DVD

This Survey is a study document available at basic cost on DVD disk. It can be purchased only by subscription pre-payment at a cost of £5 including UK postage. The DVD is a 1.5Gb data disk of pdf files for running on PC and Mac computers, not a DVD video.

Hardback book

As a special 80th birthday provision, SYHA – Hostelling Scotland is making the Survey available once only as a special-order printed hardback book, also by pre-paid subscription and published to definite orders. The no-profit cost of the 2.5Kg book is £50, including UK postage. There are minor differences in presentation between the two versions, though the content will be the same.

Pre-payment

Subscriptions for either the DVD or the hardback book must be accompanied by payment to SYHA by 31 October 2011 at the latest. SYHA will then place firm orders, and the Survey will be posted out to subscribers in either form at the beginning of December – just in time for Christmas!

For more information go to www.syha.org.uk or to order your History of SYHA Hostelling Scotland book call  Roanna Lafferty at rlaverty@syha.org.uk, tel 01786 891321, or visit us at 7 Glebe Crescent, Stirling FK8 2JA.