- Where
- Tip of the Great Northern Peninsula
Newfoundland, Canada - Coordinates
- 51.5964° N
55.5333° W - Dated
- Norse activity in 1021
(tree rings; Nature, 2021) - Buildings
- Eight, turf over timber frames
(UNESCO) - Status
- National Historic Site, 1968
UNESCO World Heritage, 1978 - Getting there
- 433 km north of Deer Lake
or 51 km from St. Anthony airport - Best visited
- June to early October, when the site is open
- Advisory
- Canada Level 1
The grass ran right down to a grey bay, and the only trees were little spruces crouched low, as if the wind had told them to sit. Out in the grass lay long, soft bumps in the turf, and nothing more. A boardwalk led round them politely. Beside the biggest one I waited, trying to see where its doorway had been, and after a while I could.
The short answer
L’Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site near St. Anthony, at the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland, in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. UNESCO describes eight timber-framed turf structures in the style of Norse Greenland and Iceland of the same period, three dwellings, one forge and four workshops, on a narrow terrace overlooking a peat bog and a small brook near the shore of Épaves Bay, and calls it the first and only known site established by Vikings in North America. Canada named it a National Historic Site in November 1968, UNESCO inscribed it in 1978, and Parks Canada manages it. Wikipedia records more than eight hundred Norse objects found here, of bronze, bone and stone, and evidence that iron was made on the spot.
Why it's worth knowing
A year, not an era. Radiocarbon dates had placed the camp between about 990 and 1050. In October 2021 a team led by Margot Kuitems published in Nature a study of wood from the site that came from three different trees. In each, the researchers found the tree ring that recorded a sudden jump in atmospheric radiocarbon caused by a solar storm, which the paper, as indexed, dates to 992 and Wikipedia to 993, and from it worked out the year each tree was felled. All three gave the same year, 1021. The paper calls it the only secure calendar date for Europeans across the Atlantic before Columbus.
A bump in a field. In 1960 George Decker, who lived in the fishing hamlet of L’Anse aux Meadows, led the Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad to a group of grassy mounds that local people called the “old Indian camp”, Wikipedia records. Ingstad and his wife, the archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, excavated them with an international team from 1961 to 1968. Parks Canada dug again in the 1970s, and after each season the remains were reburied to protect them.
The field notes
Who was here before, and after
The Norse were not the first people on this shore. Wikipedia records evidence of five Indigenous occupations at the site, the oldest about six thousand years ago, none of them at the same time as the Norse: the Maritime Archaic, the Groswater, the Middle Dorset, who were here about three hundred years before the Norse, the Cow Head and Beaches traditions, and, after the Norse had gone, the Little Passage people. The remains of an Indigenous hunting camp lie on the site south-west of the Norse buildings.
Vinland, or not
Two Icelandic sagas, written down in the thirteenth century, tell of Norse Greenlanders sailing west to a land they called Vinland, and both of the saga settlements have been claimed for this site. The claim has critics: reviewing Helge Ingstad’s 1988 report, Stuart C. Brown of Memorial University called the attempt to show that this was Leif Erikson’s camp “wholly unconvincing”, as Wikipedia quotes him. What the ground does show is that the Norse went farther: butternuts were found in the Norse layer, and butternuts do not grow naturally north of New Brunswick. Some scholars read the site as a base camp for exploring to the south, others, among them the historian Eleanor Barraclough, as a temporary boat-repair station, abandoned in good order; Wikipedia notes the absence of burials, farming or animal pens.
Turf, rebuilt
The excavated outlines are shown as they are, low grassed walls in the turf. North of them stand sod buildings reconstructed in the late twentieth century as part of the site’s interpretation, where Parks Canada’s costumed interpreters work in season. The visitor centre holds the exhibits and the finds’ story; a boardwalk leads round the remains.
The grassed-over outline of an excavated Norse hall, July 2012.
Photograph: Torbenbrinker · L'AnseAuxMeadowsLargeHouse · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
A marker at the site of the furnace building and smithy, July 2012.
Photograph: Torbenbrinker · L'AnseAuxMeadowsSmithy · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
A turf-and-timber outbuilding in the reconstructed encampment, with late-May snow, 2011.
Photograph: SemanticsDavid · L'Anse aux Meadows - 3 · CC BY-SA 3.0
House mounds in fog and dandelions, August 2009.
Photograph: Acunsolo · L'Anse aux Meadows, mounds from original Viking Longhouse · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
- Walk the boardwalk round the outlines once quickly, then once slowly, and only after that go to see the rebuilt halls.
- Use the boardwalk and nothing else. What matters here is under the grass, and it was tucked back in on purpose.
- Other people camped on this shore long before the boats and long after them. Find their places on the site plan and pay those a visit too.
- Sit by the fire in the rebuilt hall and ask the people in wool a question they have not already answered today.
- Stand by the water and look out the way the boats came. I had an item about thinking deep thoughts there, and the wind kept the item and most of the thoughts.
The outline of the great hall. A low rectangle of grassed-over turf walls on the terrace above the bog, the remains of the largest building of the Norse camp, which Wikipedia gives as 28.8 by 15.6 metres, with several rooms. It was excavated in the 1960s, recorded, and reburied to protect it, so what a visitor sees is the shape of its walls in the grass. The sod halls standing nearby are modern reconstructions.
Tally, in the marginOn the path out I realised I had gone round by the gap where the door had been, though the walls of grass came no higher than my knee, and nobody had asked me to.
Getting there
How to get there. By road up the Viking Trail. Newfoundland and Labrador’s tourism board puts the site 433 km north of Deer Lake on Route 430, about four and a half hours’ drive from Deer Lake, which has an airport. About 20 km before St. Anthony, Route 436 runs 30 km to the site. Parks Canada notes that St. Anthony’s airport is a drive of 51 km.
When to go. Parks Canada gives the site’s 2026 season as 1 June to 2 October, daily from 9 am to 5 pm, with bilingual guided tours from mid-June to Labour Day. Outside the season the buildings are closed. Bring warm, windproof layers in any month.
What to arrange ahead. A car, and somewhere to sleep near St. Anthony, since the drive from Deer Lake is long. Check Parks Canada’s current admission fees. If you mean to fly into St. Anthony, check the current schedule well ahead.
Safety. The State Department has Canada at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level (5 June 2026), with no areas singled out.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is L’Anse aux Meadows?
L’Anse aux Meadows is at the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland, near St. Anthony, in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Newfoundland and Labrador’s tourism board puts it 433 km north of Deer Lake on Route 430, the Viking Trail.
How old is L’Anse aux Meadows?
About a thousand years. A 2021 study in Nature, led by Margot Kuitems, found that wood from three trees at L’Anse aux Meadows was cut in 1021, using the tree-ring trace of a solar storm of 992 or 993 (sources differ) as a fixed marker. Earlier radiocarbon dates had placed the Norse camp between about 990 and 1050.
Is L’Anse aux Meadows the only Norse site in North America?
It is the only confirmed one. UNESCO calls L’Anse aux Meadows the first and only known site established by Vikings in North America, and the 2021 Nature study describes it as the only confirmed Norse site in the Americas. Possible Norse outposts in the Canadian Arctic have been proposed but not confirmed.
Who found the Norse site at L’Anse aux Meadows?
In 1960 George Decker, a resident of L’Anse aux Meadows, showed the Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad a group of mounds locals called the “old Indian camp”. Helge Ingstad and the archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad led excavations there from 1961 to 1968, Wikipedia records.
Is L’Anse aux Meadows Vinland?
Not for certain. The Icelandic sagas describe a land called Vinland, and L’Anse aux Meadows has been claimed as one of their settlements, but critics such as Stuart C. Brown of Memorial University rejected the identification. Butternuts found at the site show that its Norse users travelled farther south.
Who lived at L’Anse aux Meadows before the Norse?
Wikipedia records five Indigenous occupations at L’Anse aux Meadows, the oldest about six thousand years ago, including the Dorset people about three hundred years before the Norse. None overlapped with the Norse camp, and the Little Passage people came afterwards.
What can you see at L’Anse aux Meadows today?
The grassed-over outlines of the excavated Norse buildings, which were reburied after digging, reconstructed sod buildings with costumed interpreters, and a visitor centre. Parks Canada opens L’Anse aux Meadows from 1 June to 2 October in 2026, daily from 9 am to 5 pm.
Is Canada safe to visit?
The U.S. State Department has Canada at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level, in an advisory dated 5 June 2026 that singles out no areas. It recommends buying travel insurance and checking its evacuation cover.