The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre
★ In our guides ↓

On Our List

The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre

A striking modern visitor centre with interactive exhibits, a rooftop viewing platform and a genuinely good café - an excellent first stop before walking the Wall.

Address:

Once Brewed, Hexham, NE47 7AN
Call:
01434 341200

Hours:

Daily: 10am - 5pm

Map

Good to Know

The Sill is the Northumberland National Park's discovery centre at Once Brewed, just below the Wall. Opened in 2017, it has exhibitions about the landscape, a rooftop walk across its living grass roof, a café, a shop and a youth hostel. It takes its name from the Whin Sill, the ridge of hard rock that Hadrian's Wall runs along.

Why it's on our list: it's the perfect first stop for a day on the Wall, with free entry, helpful staff, good walking information and a café that's worth a stop in its own right.

Worth knowing: parking is charged. The seasonal AD122 Hadrian's Wall bus stops here, so you can walk one way and catch the bus back. Housesteads and Vindolanda are both a short drive away.

A Little Note From Heather & Sand

We haven't quite made it here ourselves yet, but it's on our list!

We're working our way around Northumberland, personally visiting and reviewing as many of the places featured in our Listed section as we can. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

In the meantime, we do our homework. Before adding somewhere to Heather & Sand, we research it, look at what other visitors have to say and check that it has a good reputation. If the feedback isn't encouraging, it generally doesn't make our list.

Of course, a little online research is no substitute for muddy boots, a decent coffee and seeing somewhere for ourselves. So until we've visited, we'll leave the personal review to one side.

A little about us...

Heather & Sand is our little corner of Northumberland — a collection of places, stories, walks and discoveries from a county we love.

Through our Journal, Guide and Listed pages, we hope to help you discover somewhere new, revisit an old favourite or simply enjoy a little Northumberland from wherever you happen to be.

Tom, Lucy & the Heather & Sand crew.

Featured in our guides

What's On in Northumberland: November 2026