A Cumbrian archaeological project has unearthed the largest Viking building in the UK.
Excavations began at High Tarns Farm, near Silloth, in January 2024.
Led by Grampus Heritage and Training, the dig was funded by Defra.
In 2022, satellite images suggested a large building could be beneath the land and it was initially thought it could be related to the 12th century Cistercian monastery at Holme Cultram Abbey.
From last summer. archaeologists and volunteers found the whole footprint of a building and carbon dating has revealed that the building in fact dates back to the late 10th/early 11th century.
Grampus Heritage and Training said: “The significance of this discovery, in shedding light on the early medieval period and social structure in rural Cumbria and more widely, is hard to overstate.
“When we consider the impressive scale of the hall in association with the charcoal production pit, the grain dryer, and the other features identified through geophysics yet to be excavated, it seems most likely that the hall is the focus of an early medieval manor farm.
“Although we have no cultural material from the excavation, to find comparative examples we must look to Scandinavia.
“Viking age heritage in Cumbria, sometimes called ‘Anglo-Scandinavian’ culture, is well documented.
“Within our region we have Scandinavian place names, dialect, Viking burials and a wealth of sculpture from the period in our older church sites.
“The hogback stones found at several church sites in Cumbria are depictions of large high-status halls.
“Although the strong cultural influence from Scandinavia in the Viking Age in Cumbria is without doubt, absence of buildings from the period in the archaeological record has often been attributed to the likelihood that later buildings were built on top of settlement sites.”
