The Sill and Hadrians Wall

I’ve never visited Hadrians Wall, in fact I think I have only ever driven through Northumberland to get to somewhere else. After our first ever, and very successful, stay in a youth hostel and then spotting The Sill on Robson Greens Weekend Breaks I decided that this was our next mini adventure. Both my kids are taking GCSE history and also seem to have a genuine interest in all things historical so it seemed like a win win.

I am most definitely not one of those parents who has everyone up and in the car at 5am to miss the traffic, I am more of a ‘lets have a leisurely load of the car, aim for 12 and if we leave by 1 and no-one has fallen out we are on to a winner.’ So we left at 1!

The drive was great, we stopped in Corbridge to pick through the antique shops and a visit to RE, well worth a visit, arrived an hour before check-in and went straight into the visitor centre.

The Sill is just incredible, a stunning building that fits perfectly into the landscape. Not only does it contain the youth hostel but a discovery centre, cafe, exhibition space and accessible roof to take in the views. The kids were more than engrossed in the discovery centre while we waited to check in.

What a youth hostel this is, really modern and clean, lovely big communal and eating area with a bar, fully equipped kitchen and laundry room. We had a fab private room with en-suite. The Twice Brewed pub is right next door, we tried to rock up to eat the first night but you need to book, we had no problem getting into another local pub.

After a huge buffet breakfast, £9.95 each and you can go in your slippers because its a youth hostel and no-one cares, we set off to walk to Vindalonda. iIt’s really not far but it was so nice to have the time to walk and talk with my 2 teenagers.

I expected to maybe get an hour in the ruins of this Roman Fort before my two were looking at me with that ‘enough now’ look in their eyes but we were there most of the day, wandering, working out were everything was, them telling me really quite fascinating facts.

We wandered down to the museum, had a really tasty lunch in the cafe overlooking the stream and then ended up in the stream.

Luckily we had booked dinner at The Twice Brewed and it was so worth it, great menu, great food, we were exhausted but incredibly well fed.

The youth hostel has a board game menu and there were plenty of families taking advantage of this when we got back but I had brought Contraband with me, a game we played as a family in the 70s that involves smuggling and lying, my two were incredibly skilled at it.

Because The Sill is so well located we managed to cram in a lot the next day, a walk along Hadrians Wall, a visit to Housesteads and the Roman Army Museum which is part of Vindalonda.

This trip was so lovely to do with two teenagers, precious time spent away from devices, lots of fresh air and good food and I have completed my step count to the end of the year.