Steve Dickinson. ‘Vikings in Cumbria’.

This talk will reveal fascinating new insights about the Vikings in Cumbria.

A research project in the valley of Kentmere in the 1980’s found the first, and so far only, radiocarbon-dated Viking Age ‘longhouse’ in England. At Cumwhitton near Carlisle, Oxford Archaeology North conducted an excavation revealing a small Viking Age cemetery. Since the early 2000’s, metal-detecting has revealed new forms of evidence for Viking activity in the form of silver hoards buried over a thousand years ago. In 2024 a monumental mound known as The King’s Mound was found next to 39 smaller, satellite mounds. Metal-detector surveys show that this complex is largely a huge Viking Age necropolis, with The King’s Mound containing a monumental burial - probably a Viking ship. If so, it is one of only 16 pre-Viking and Viking Age monumental ship burials known in NW Europe.  Not far away, evidence for Viking fleet bases and a huge hall site has been found.  A new archaeological programme is starting this year to investigate some of these sites, coordinated by
Cumbrian archaeologist Steve Dickinson.