Green grows the roof of the Sill by Hadrian's Wall

The Sill, Once Brewed, Northumberland Planting at the National Landscape Discovery Centre aims to recreate the area's rare whin grasslands

Standing on the roof of the Sill with the wind in my hair, I have a new view of familiar countryside. For years I've driven along Hadrian's Wall, enjoying the way the land forms a series of waves like a frozen sea.

Now, from the highest point of this building, I watch a buzzard circling above the Roman quarry at Barcombe Hill, see walkers labouring up the craggy steps at Steel Rigg, glimpse far-off bales in a recently cut hay field and cows tail flicking in the summer heat.