A POPULAR youth hostel is at risk of closure after it was put up for sale by the Youth Hostel Association (YHA).

Osmotherley Youth Hostel, on the edge of the North York Moors National Park, has been put on the market for an asking price of £500,000 after the association decided to sell the property in February.

The hostel, a former mill and mill owner’s cottage, has 72-bunk accommodation spaces in 12 bedrooms and is being sold with a view to keeping it as a youth hostel.

However, if the new buyer were to change the site into something else, it would leave a large part of the North York Moors National Park without a youth hostel – the nearest YHA hostels are found in Helmsley, or Grinton, in the Yorkshire Dales.

A spokesman for the YHA said the money raised from the sale of the Osmotherley hostel will be used to improve other hostels, in particular Grinton, which has had more than £530,000 of refurbishment.

The association has guaranteed that the hostel will not close until the end of October and all bookings made for this summer will be honoured.

The hostel has been open for more than 30 years and has a key position near the Lyke Wake Walk, the Cleveland Way and the Coast to Coast footpath, as well as Osmotherley village, which is less than half a mile away.

Duncan Simpson, director of communications for the Youth Hostel Association, said: "Closing the hostel is part of our development and investment plan for the whole of the YHA so we will be using the proceeds of the sale to invest in other hostels.

"We will also be looking to invest in other hostels within the national park and keep a presence there. We are selling it as a youth hostel and if anyone wanted to change that they would have to go through planning permission for a change of use.

"The hostel is still operating at the moment and until such a time as a sale is made we have guaranteed that bookings will still be available."

Richard Gunton, director of recreation and park management for the North York Moors National Park Authority said: "It would be a great shame to see the loss of a youth hostel in the National Park, particularly in this beautiful location at the junction of three of the country's more popular long distance walks.

"We will be working with the Youth Hostel Association and the local community and will do everything we can to help promote the hostel and its long term future."