Vikings in Scotland

The native people whom the Vikings encountered in the Northern Isles were Picts and the
Brough of Birsay in north west Orkney was inhabited by a Pictish community.

The Norse settlement appears to have been established early in the ninth century and the
discovery of native Pictish artefacts in the Norse houses of the ninth and tenth century
demonstrates that there was contact between the two peoples.

These include native Pictish types, Scandinavian artefacts and imports from Ireland and Anglo-
Saxon England.

Birsay is mentioned in the Norse Orkneyinga Saga written around 1200 AD.

These pages are mainly about the Brough of Birsay although artefacts from other Orkney
locations are included.

Early Viking Houses on the Brough of Birsay, Orkney

The island was taken over by the Norwegian Vikings in the 9th century and the earlier Pictish
houses were demolished to make way for new homes. Many Pictish and Norse objects have been
found during excavation.

Up the slope from the churchyard is a typical group of Norse houses , sometimes called half-
houses because each consists of a single large room. The walls were built with a thick inner face
of stone, a core of earth and turf and a rough outer face of stone and turf with thickness varying
between 1m and 1.5m. There were no windows but in some cases as many as 3 doors. Only the
lowest courses of the walls survive but these would originally have stood to about 2 metres with
a timber framed roof carrying a turf mantle. In the centre of each house was a long hearth,
flanked on either side by wide wooden benches. Internal timber posts would have helped to
support the roof. Little of this is visible today apart from the raised footing of the benches.
Alongside these houses is a barn with a byre at the far end where there is a stone covered drain.
All the buildings are aligned downslope to reduce drainage problems. The results from the
excavations which have taken place here show that throughout the four or five centuries of
rebuilding , the same building plots have been maintained and respected from Pictish into Norse
times.

The Brough of Birsay is a small tidal island off the north west tip of mainlnd Orkney. This shows
the causeway which you need to walk across to raech the island - access to the Brough is
restricted to a few hours each day, at either side of low tide

Early Viking houses

The early Norse settlement was served by a system of stone built drains . The covering slabs are
visible here

The drains are under the paved causeway which ends abrubtly at the cliff edge nowadays - one of
the casualties of coastal erosion. It has parallel sides and a sloping floor. It must have been a
grand entrance way though the width may have been designed to allow boats to be drawn up out
of the reach of the sea.
Later Norse Houses, Brough of Birsay, Orkney
This complicated maze of walls along the cliff on the seaward side of the later church represent
several building phases extending throughout the Norse period from the ninth to the twelve
century, although most of the upstanding walls can be dated to the tenth century from the
artefacts associated with them.

Several later buildings were removed in the course of excavation and traces of earlier structures
remain beneath the ground surface.
This rectangular building with the kerb stones of its long hearth still visible, represents the last of
the four major phases of occupation spanning both Pictish and Norse times.

This small building has a kerb of upright stones which may have supported wooden benches
round the walls. Its purpose is uncertain but a hundred pebbles were found on the floor, perhaps
for heating in a brazier and then dousing with water to create a sauna.
Viking Tablet Weaving
Bone weaving tablet from the early Norse levels at Brough of Birsay
Viking Weapons
Detail of the hilt of the Iron sword decorated in silver and bronze - from the Scar boat burial on
Sanday, Orkney C 950AD
Viking Strap-ends
Bronze strap-end from the Brough of Birsay, Orkney

Strap-end from St Peters Kirk, Skaill, Orkney

Viking Whalebone Plaque
Whalebone Plaque, on which linen was smoothed from the Scar Boat Burial, Sanday, Orkney.
About 50 examples of these are know - mostly from Norway C 950AD

Viking Bone and antler pins

Bone and antler Pins from Deerness, Saevarhowe, Birsay and Brough of Birsay, Orkney. These
were probably used for fastening clothing or bags

Viking Jewellery
Oval Brooch from a grave at Gurness , Orkney - cast in bronze , these Scandinavian brooches
have been found throughout the Viking world. These were cast in bronze in a two-piece clay
mould, and the decoration was often quite elaborate, with interlaced designs.

Gilded brass equal armed brooch from the Scar boat burial on Sanday, Orkney

Huge thistle -brooches from a Viking hoard discovered at Skaill Bay on Orkney in 1858. These
are huge penannular brooches - some are 7 inches / 170mm in diameter. Buried around 950AD.
Viking Bone Handles
Viking Bone Handles - probably for knives

From St Lawrence Kirk, Burray, Orkney

From Saevarhowe, Birsay, Orkney

From Rothiesholm, Stronsay, Orkney

Viking Gaming pieces
12th century Ivory Lewis chessmen.

These were part of a great hoard of chessmen found in a stone cist at Uig Bay on the Isle of
Lewis in 1831. There were a total of 78 chessmen included in the hoard and all are made of
walrus ivory. The image on the right potrays a marauding Viking with glaring eyes and sinking
his teeth into the top of his shield. The decoration on the reverse of these pieces dates them to the
middle of the 12th Century - so late Norse Scotland.
Playing pieces made from whalebone
from the Scar boat burial on Sanday, Orkney C 950AD
Viking Combs
Made of several pieces of bone and antler riveted together. Thin rectangles were then cut for the
tooth plates , then these were riveted between two backing plates. The teeth were cut and some
decoration might be added.

Antler comb from the Scar boat grave, Sanday, Orkney

Antler comb from the Brough of Birsay, Orkney

Bone comb case from the Brough of Birsay, Orkney

Early Norse bone comb from the Brough of Birsay, Orkney