A few weeks back we were exploring Hadrian’s wall with our kids. One of the best places we visited was The Sill National landscape discovery centre. This is a free to visit attraction where you can learn all about landscapes, in particular, the Northumberland landscape including Hadrian’s wall.
The Sill National Landscape discovery centre
The building
The building is a unique partnership between Northumberland National Park and YHA England and Wales. It’s a stunning building with a grass roof on which not only can you walk to the top to get stunning views of the area but because of the gentle slope, it’s completely accessible for wheelchairs too.
The building is inspired by The Great Whin Sill which is just a 10-minute walk from the centre. Local materials feature heavily in the building too. I love the look of this building and all the large windows which take advantage of the views.
Inside the building, there is the YHA hostel, a cafe, a permanent free to visit National Landscape discovery centre, a temporary exhibition space, shop, information desk and two learning rooms which are used for events and workshops.
The staff on the information desk were really helpful with advice on walks in the area and were able to provide free leaflet/maps of popular walks. We loved the large map on the desk too. So useful for planning walks.
National Landscape Discovery Centre
We loved this exhibition. It’s free to enter and fantastic for children and adults. The picture above shows the size of the area and although it doesn’t look very big, there is a lot packed in. We visited a couple of times during our weekend and spent a fair amount of time here.
My girls loved this stage area at one end of the exhibition. There is a basket of books and to their delight a basket full of amazing nature-themed fancy dress costumes. They loved dressing up, admiring their costumes in the full-length mirror and performing on the stage for us.
Right next to the stage area there is a large light table with a really well-stocked nature tray packed with natural loose parts for exploring on the light table. Such a simple idea but very effective for getting children interested in seeing the beauty in nature.
Our favourite interactive element for kids though was the interactive sand tray map. I’m not sure what it is called but it is a tray full of sand with a projector overhead. This projects an image on to the sand of a landscape map. As you move the sand around, the map changes. You can build your own islands, mountain ranges and lakes. If you hold your hand at a certain height you can even see what happens when it rains.
As well as the great interactive elements mentioned above, there are numerous displays where you can learn about the Northumberland National Park Landscape. There is a mixture of artefacts, displays, text, short videos and interactive elements.
We loved listening to a poem written about the park by a local primary school, watching short videos from local farmers, hikers, cyclists, gamekeepers and much more. It’s a really great place for learning more about the area, the people who work the land and those who enjoy the landscape.
There is another really great interactive game where 1 or 2 players compete to spend their £1 million budget to reduce flooding. As we visited in late February when the country is battling flooding, this was a really timely reminder of how flooding could be reduced.
I love that the space is so light, bright and inviting. The space is a great learning space for everyone. One remarkable thing was that all the interactive elements were in full working order, the nature tray well stocked and basically it was clear that the space is well maintained and cared for.
Temporary exhibition space
When we visited this was being used to display an exhibition on the book “The lost words”. I love this book so it was lovely to see it in this way. Again children were well catered for in this area. There were a couple of desks, colouring sheets and plenty of crayons. Find out more about future temporary exhibitions and other great events here.
YHA The Sill at Hadrian’s wall
The other half of the building is a 86 bed YHA hostel. I wrote a lot more about this amazing hostel in my YHA The Sill at Hadrian’s Wall review. We stayed in an en-suite private 4 bedroom and thoroughly enjoyed our stay.
Visiting The Sill
- Open daily from 10am – 4pm.
- Free entry.
- Full details can be found here.
- National Landscape Discovery Centre is located at Bardon Mill, Hexham, Northumberland, NE47 7AN.
- Parking is £2 for up to 2 hours then £1 and hour up to a maximum of £5.
- There is a bus stop outside that runs seasonally.
- All toilets are fully accessible to Changing places standards.
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