Great location: 5mins walk to train station and 2mins walk to the seashore
Nice staff and clean room
There is also a free computer in common room providing free internet!

I don't like the fact that the hostel had a time for latest arrival at 10pm but the owner of the hostel was quite nice to us even when we didn't arrived until 11pm. Plus points are the place was really easy to find, free wifi and breakfast was included (self served bread/toast, cereal, porriage, tea and coffee). What let this hostel down was the bed wasn't too good as you could feel the spring through the mattress and the shower was really bad as theres not power at all, the water was just dripping off the shower head. Its ok for a basic one night stay!

OK, I know it is a hostel and not a hotel and you get what you pay for, or at least you should get what you pay for.

This was terrible, I can't find anything good to say except when we 1st walked in room it looked fine bed, separate toilet and shower, wooden floors and looked clean enough. Oh they allowed dogs too and the very best thing the chance to visit smoo cave

Oh and it had a TV.

We booked a private room which was a family room. Room 2. We got into the room had a look around and then I sat on the bed, 1st mistake, every slight movement and the bed squeaked, so sleeping on it was going to be fun it was a bunk bed idea with a double on the bottom and a single on the top. just aswell we did not have a child with us as the top bunk was held together with cable ties. I kid you not, see photo. Because of this all the joints were loose and the bed squeaked.

The power cable to the TV was joined in the middle and taped together with insulating tape (I would have thought basic health and safety applied even in a hostel) There were no towels in the room despite there being some in the cleaning cupboard wiyth bed linen sheets etc. We paid £32 a night and could have got B&B elsewhere for £40 - £44. That will teach us!!

You could hear every creak of the floorboards above the room and outside the room. Then outside the local young guys used the street as a race track for their daddy's cars with sports exhausts so I went to shut the window, to find it was broken and wouldn't shut.

We got tea from the chip shop downstairs. The chips were horrible, the pizza burnt and the fish translucently raw!! I spent the whole night trying to sleep in one position as the slightest movement meant horrendous squeaking which was unbearable. There was a pull out single bed under the bunk which I pulled out and hastily pushed back under it was covered in a multitude of stains ranging from paint to chocolate (I hope) to dust to who knows what.

In the morning there were no staff available to complain to as they weren't about till the chip shop opened

All in all a terrible experience will not be returning and it has put me off Thurso as well.

Try at your peril.

Its hard to review this as we have never stayed in a hostel before but the building was somewhere my husbands mother had lived as a child and as we where visiting Thurso to see where she had lived it seemed a nice idea to book a room there. It is located above a chip shop (and nice chips they were too, we even tried a deep fried mars bar which was wonderful!)

We booked a private en suite room for 4 with bunk beds. The room was clean with fresh bedding, there was a lobby and then and iron staircase outside which took you to another door in which there was a kitchen/common room. This was well stocked and you could prepare food at any time. There was also Internet access and a television. There are also games, books and films available for dark rainy nights. The owners were friendly and happily answered any questions.

It was a surprisingly enjoyable stay, we weren't looking forward to "sharing" a common room as we used to staying in hotels but the people staying at the hostel were very nice and interesting to talk too.

However, Thurso itself......I think its a place you visit when you are going somewhere else.....its a stopping off place rather than a place of interest to visit. I found it charmless and was happy to leave despite the friendly hostel.