Walking Where the Vikings Once Walked

I'd been to L'Anse aux Meadows once before, but I was just as excited to go back as I was the first time.  I remembered bits and pieces, but it had been long enough that it almost felt like seeing it for the first time again.

L'Anse aux Meadows is the only confirmed Viking settlement in North America and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Archaeologists believe Norse explorers arrived here around the year 1000, making it the earliest known European settlement in North America - nearly 500 years before Columbus.

It's believed the Vikings used this as a temporary base while exploring farther south. They built a small settlement where they repaired their ships, gathered timber, and prepared for future voyages. Although they only stayed for a relatively short time, 10 years,  their visit forever changed what we know about the history of North America.

This boggy, barren land is what the Vikings would have seen when they landed

Our first stop was the visitor centre.

We spent quite a bit of time wandering through the exhibits, looking at artifacts that had been uncovered during the archaeological excavations and reading about how the site was discovered in the 1960s by Norwegian explorers and archaeologists Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad. One display that really caught my attention was a large 3D model showing what the settlement would have looked like over 1,000 years ago.

Before heading outside, we also watched the short film in the theatre.

I highly recommend taking the time to watch it.

It explains how the Vikings made the difficult journey across the North Atlantic, why they came to Newfoundland, what life was like while they were here, and why they eventually left. It gave us a much better understanding of the site before we started exploring it ourselves.

After the film, we headed outside to the archaeological site.

If you're expecting to see standing Viking buildings, you'll probably be surprised.

Most of the original site consists of grassy mounds marking where the sod buildings once stood. At first glance, it doesn't look like much. But once you understand what you're looking at, it's surprisingly easy to imagine what life might have been like here over a thousand years ago.

Walking through the site, I found myself trying to picture the longhouses, workshops, and the people who once called this place home, even if only for a short time.

Not far from the archaeological site is the recreated Viking encampment.

This was one of my favourite parts of the visit.

The reconstructed sod buildings give you a much better sense of how the Vikings lived. We wandered through the sod buildings, looking at the simple sleeping quarters, cooking areas, and work spaces. Parks Canada interpreters, dressed in period clothing, were on hand to answer questions, demonstrate Viking tools and crafts, and share stories about daily life in the settlement.

Sleeping quarters

It's amazing to think the Norse  crossed an ocean in open wooden ships and built a settlement in such a remote place.

As we walked back to the car, I couldn't help but think about how incredible it is that a place like this exists.  More than a thousand years ago, Vikings stood on this same stretch of coastline, looking out over the same ocean.

That's a pretty amazing thought.