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A visitor centre to boost Northumberland National Park takes a big step forward today.

The £10.5m The Sill – National Landscape Discovery Centre building would replace the current 1960’s Once Brewed tourist information centre and youth hostel on Hadrian’s Wall located on Military Road, Bardon Mill, Northumberland, NE47 7AN.

The aim of the new visitor centre is to inspire visitors to explore the whole of Northumberland National Park and its landscape, history and wildlife.

It is expected to increase visitor numbers from the current 45,000 a year at Once Brewed to 120,000, generating £1.4m for the economy and creating and supporting 60 jobs.

Today, Northumberland National Park and the Youth Hostel Association will announce they have appointed award winning Newcastle-based Jane Darbyshire and David Kendall Architects to explore initial concepts for The Sill – National Landscape Discovery Centre.

The move is part of development work following the award of almost £400,000 a year ago by the Heritage Lottery Fund to work up ideas for the venture.

This will lead to a bid for a full grant of more than £6m.

“This will be a flagship centre for Northumberland National Park and will be of the landscape and inspired by the landscape,” said The Sill – National Landscape Discovery Centre project co-ordinator Laura Sole.

It is named after the Great Whin Sill, the band of distinctive, hard rock which outcrops in the North East from Lindisfarne and Hadrian’s Wall to Teesdale.

The idea is for the centre to use whinstone in its construction and feature various roofs, including turf and heather thatch, and viewing platforms.

The centre would also include educational facilities and activities, and cater for visiting groups in an adjacent high-class 80-bed youth hostel, while also selling and promoting local goods and produce.

The vision is that it will serve as a hub from which people can explore more of the 400sq miles of Northumberland National Park and its history from hill forts to the Reivers.

Tony Gates, park chief executive, said “This area has built up a fantastic international reputation for its association with Hadrian’s Wall and Roman history but it is often also the broader landscape which makes a lasting impression on visitors and inspires them to return.

The Sill – National Landscape Discovery Centre project will place all of Northumberland National Park and the wider landscapes of the North East on the global map for a whole new set of reasons around its unique and magnificent geographic and geological significance.

The building itself will offer a fantastic educational asset and resource for the North East and UK as a whole, as well as very real gains in terms of attracting visitor numbers and spend, creating new jobs and boosting the local economy.

Our aim is nothing short of transforming how people engage with landscapes.

We are now looking forward to sharing these with the public and inviting them to help us shape and create a world-class visitor experience.”

JDDK director Nicky Watson said “We’re delighted to have been appointed for this exciting project alongside Glen Kemp as landscape architects and Cundalls as planning consultants.

We’re now looking forward to developing the proposals.”

YHA property director, Jake Chalmers, said “We’re excited at the way our partnership with the national park will revitalise our presence here.

People value the history, beauty and landscape of this place and the welcome and social atmosphere we offer, so much so that we’ve had a youth hostel here since 1934.”

If you are looking for hotel accommodation for your visit to Hadrian’s Wall our bed and breakfast best price and room availability is here Book Online.

Room information including photographs can be found on the Accommodation page of our website.

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Monday 1st June 2026, 16:06 BST
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