Background
At the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, the remains of an 11th-century Viking settlement are evidence of the first European presence in North America. UNESCO says the excavated remains of wood-framed peat-turf buildings are similar to those found in Norse Greenland and Iceland.
First excavated in the 1960s, the site is dated by carbon to between 990 and 1050 and by tree rings to 1021, and is the only undisputed site of pre-Columbian contact between Europeans and the Americas outside Greenland. Wikipedia says it probably served as a base camp for Norse exploration further south, with a possible link to the Leif Erikson of the sagas; eight buildings of sod over a wood frame have been found, with more than 800 Norse objects and evidence of iron production. Parks Canada manages the 8,000 hectares of land and sea.
- 6,000 years agoThe first of five Indigenous occupations of the site
- 1021Tree-ring date for the Norse timbers
- 13th c.The Greenland and Erik the Red sagas are written down
- 1960sThe settlement is excavated
- 1968National Historic Site of Canada
- 1978Inscribed as World Heritage
Find Your Way Around
The main parts of the site, in the order most visitors see them
- 1The Sod BuildingsThe remains of eight turf-walled, wood-framed buildings beside the cove.
- 2Norse FindsMore than 800 objects of bronze, bone and stone, and the traces of ironworking.
- 3The Viking TrailHighway 430 from Deer Lake through Gros Morne to St Anthony, through windswept fishing villages.
- 4Icebergs OffshoreWikivoyage: icebergs drift past the coast through the summer drive.
- 5St AnthonyThe Grenfell House Museum and Interpretation Centre on the mission doctor who brought medicine to the coast.
- 6Flower's Cove ThrombolitesFossil-like algal structures on the shore, an hour south.
Know Before You Go
From Wikivoyage and the GoGo guides
The Northern Tip
Not yet in a GoGo guide
- 09:00L'Anse aux Meadows3 hrsThe excavated Norse buildings on the cove.
- 13:30Grenfell House Museum, St Anthony90 minThe mission doctor's home.
- 16:00Flower's Cove Thrombolites1 hrAncient algal mounds on the shore, an hour south.
Best Time to Visit
Best months: Aug. Freezing days in Nov–May.
Typical highs
Climate: NASA POWER
Pair It With
Other World Heritage sites nearby, by distance
