Appalachain Trail Hostel: Braemar Castle Hiker Hostel

While the plan is to stay at campgrounds as our base camp, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stay at the historic Braemar Castle Hiker Hostel. I’ve known since 2015, when I started planning for my hike (initially scheduled for 2020), that I wanted to stay here.

I only had about a week or so left in Tennessee before hitting Virginia, and the campgrounds were either already full, too far, or lacked having at least one of the amenities we wanted.

We decided to stay at Braemar Castle Hiker Hostel, and since it was late in the season, we had this entire historic building to ourselves.

History of Braemar Castle Hiker Hostel

In 1915, it served as the office, commissary, and company store for the Pittsburg Lumber Company. It also housed the post office upstairs and has served as a community library.

It was bought by the Brown’s after the depression and turned into a boarding house. In the mid-1970s, it became an AT Hiker Hostel, where Sutton Brown ran it until his death. His son Ben now runs it and is a super nice guy. Definitely make plans to stay here when you pass through. 

Accommedations

Parking: There really isn’t any parking (which, for most hikers, isn’t an issue since they don’t have a vehicle to park). However, they own part of a lot across from the hostel where you can park on the grass, and we had no issue fitting ” The Beast,” aka my Chevy 2500 HD truck, there.

Rooms: They offer a variety of options, allowing you to choose from a bunk in the bunkroom downstairs, a private room with shared bath, or a private room with private bath. The rooms are MASSIVE. Plenty of room for you to spread out all your gear.

Full Kitchen: Upstairs, where all the private rooms are, is a full kitchen. I believe the bunk area downstairs also has a full kitchen (I’d have to go back and watch my video tour lol).

Common Area: The upstairs common area features seating, an old-school TV with a VCR, and a selection of VHS tapes.

Things to Know

Parking, as I stated, is limited. So, if you’re doing what we’re doing now, and you happen to be towing a camper, there will be nowhere for you to park.

No A/C: There is no A/C, and, of course, we were there during June, which was hot, granted it was also unseasonably hot for the area. There are no fans in the rooms either, so just keep that in mind. I have no idea if there is heat or not.

No cable or local channels: There are no cable or local channels available, so you won’t be able to watch the news if that’s your preference. We rarely watch TV, so that didn’t bother us.

Video Tour

Let me just say in advance that I seemed rushed in the video. We were getting ready to head out and I almost forgot to take the video…DOH! I even forgot to take pictures! All the pictures I used for this post were screenshots from the video.