‘What did Viking Dublin’s houses look like; how were they made and what were they made from?’

As excellent as preservation is in Dublin from the 10th and 11th centuries, the evidence for its houses survives to knee height at best. How we imagine these houses looked, from their doors to their roofs, to the ways they are drawn in books or rebuilt in heritage centres, are all inferred through archaeological and architectural interpretations.

At UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture however, we have a unique opportunity to test these interpretations, and explore first hand, some of the architectural features of the kinds of houses that would have stood in Dublin over a thousand years ago.

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Stephen Fox, Brendan O’Niell and Dr. Eileen Reilly discuss the beginning plans of our Viking House

Detailed drawing of one of the Viking houses excavated in Dublin

Eileen, Brendan and Stephen stand at the heart of UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology, where our Viking House will stand.

“We are building a house using a simple rule”, Says Prof. Aidan O’Sullivan, Director of UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology, “It must be based on archaeological evidence, we cannot introduce any modern features that make it stronger in engineering terms and aspects like the sizes of the post-and-wattle or timbers we use, must be the same as what was found in the Viking Dublin excavations”

After months of planning and material gathering, the building of a Type 1 Viking Dublin house at UCD has finally begun. The structure, whose doorframes and post-and-wattle foundation walls are now firmly in the ground, is primarily based on excavated houses at Temple Bar West (BN1), and Fishamble Street (FS90) and uses environmental evidence from the Viking Dublin excavations, provided by Dr. Eileen Reilly.

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Fishamble Street, Building Remains of FS 1 at level 1 (Wallace, 2016)

“With fragmentary evidence of around 600 buildings;… this is the most extensive record of its kind from Medieval Europe” – Pat Wallace (2016)

Viking house in progress at UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology

Of the hundreds of houses identified from the fragmentary remains of Dublin’s first settlement, the vast majority were nearly all of a kind known as, ‘Type 1’. Like other examples of Norse houses throughout Scandinavia and the Viking World, and unlike Irish Roundhouses, Type 1 houses were long, rectangular structures.

They had an entrance at both the front and back ends of the building. Stepping over a wooden threshold, one would have ducked below the lintel and walked into a rectangular three aisled room with bedding or sleeping areas either side of a stone lined hearth. After a moment, with eyes adjusting to the darkness, before taking a seat by the fire you might then have rested your hand on one of the most characteristic features of a viking house; one of always four, thick internal roof support beams.

These features and the senses of space they give are gradually what is beginning to take shape at our Centre for Experimental Archaeology; from fragmented traces in the ground, to physical constructs, the dynamics of which haven’t been tested in over a thousand years.

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Trimming the sides of the Hazel Rods – To be used as wattle

Staying close to the Archaeological evidence, Ash was chosen for the door jambs, thresholds and lintels

Hazel rods were chosen from a coppiced woodland in Ireland

Gathering Hazel rods in a coppiced woodland in Co. Offaly

The structure, which is part two of UCD School of Archaeology’s “Early Medieval and Viking House Project”, led by Aidan O’Sullivan, Brendan O’Neill, Eileen Reilly, and Stephen Fox, is funded by UCD Research Seed Funding, Dublin City Council, UCD School of Archaeology, the National Botanic Gardens, and the Irish Museums Trust.

The house will continue its build over the summer and its progress can be seen this month when UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology opens its gates for the UCD Alumni Festival on the 18th June from 11:00am – 16:30. There we will be giving tours of the Viking house, the Centre for Experimental  Archaeology and hosting a range of craft demonstrations.

For more information about the project see our Early Medieval and Viking House Project section in ‘current projects’. And follow ArchaeoFox to receive project updates.

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UCD PhD Scholar, Brendan O’Neill hammers the first series of uprights into the ground.

Wattling is the process of wearing thin rods horizontally around thicker vertical uprights to make a fence or wall.

The door jambs were handmade from complete ash trees, with axes

Daily progress can be followed at: UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology Facebook Page & Here at www.archaeofox.com

For More Information on UCD School of Archaeology visit: https://www.ucd.ie/archaeology/

Follow us also on Twitter @EArchaeol and https://twitter.com/archaeofox

And on Instagram @ucd_experimental_archaeology and https://www.instagram.com/archaeofox/

The Type 1 Dublin Longhouse at UCD School of Archaeology and Material Culture – Left: Brendan O’Neill, Right: Stephen Fox

Thanks or Reading

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Further Reading:

O’Sullivan, A., McCormik, F., Kerr, T. R. & Harney, L. (2013) Early Medieval Ireland AD 400 – 1100: The Evidence From Archaeological Excavations. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.

Simpson, L. (1999) Director’s Findings: Temple Bar West. Dublin: Temple Bar Archaeological Report.

Wallace, P. F. (2016) Viking Dublin: The Wood Quay Excavations. Kildare: Irish Academic Press

Wallace, P. F. (1992) The Viking Age Buildings of Dublin, Vol 1. Dublin: The Royal Irish Academy

Wallace, P. F. (1992) The Viking Age Buildings of Dublin, Vol 2. Dublin: The Royal Irish Academy