“As part of the Youth Hostels Association’s (YHA) Festival of Walking launched in September 2022 to encourage the culture of walking, SEM and the YHA organised a Festival of Walking residential weekend with a number of minoritised community groups at The Sill, Northumberland National Park, from Friday September 6th to Sunday 7th, 2023.

The groups were led on a guided walk by Rangers from the Northumberland National Park to learn about the Black history of the national park such as the Hadrian’s Wall. The Wall was strengthened and built by the Black Roman Empire, Severus Septimius who ruled Britain from AD 193 – 211.

It was the first time any of the 30 participants have ever been to the Hadrian’s Wall nor were they fully aware of the hidden Black history in that landscape. Mohammed Dalech from MOSAIC at Cumbria came to speak to the groups about the Black history of the Hadrian’s Wall.