Styles of settlement
There is a contrast between the essentially rural pattern of Norwegian settlement in Scotland, with its individual farms and family estates, and the urban development of Dublin and later Waterford in Ireland. There the Vikings established trading centres on the coastal fringe of a rural hinterland that was little affected by Scandinavian activities.
'Timber buildings set in plots of equal size suggest a degree of town planning ...'
York was the northernmost of the Viking towns of England, and it seems possible that the Viking takeover of rural estates may have stimulated urban growth in the sense that some of the dispossessed English farmers sought a new life in trade or industry in towns.
Viking York in the tenth century was larger than contemporary Scandinavian towns, a fact that underlines the importance of the Danish settlement of England to the balance of wealth and power around the North Sea. It was enclosed by an earthen bank topped by a stout wooden fence, and in places within the heart of the modern city excavations have revealed deposits of Viking Age material several metres deep.
Timber buildings set in plots of equal size suggest a degree of town planning, while the debris from workshops tells of urban industries such as leather-working, bone comb-making, textiles and metalworking. Crucial to urban development is the discovery of coin-making dies, for the Viking economy had previously been based not on currency but on silver bullion and the exchange of goods.
Towns were not a Viking invention, and the growth of towns such as York depended on their existing foundations. This is perhaps why towns did not develop in Scandinavian Scotland before the 12th century because there had been no previous urban development. Kirkwall in Orkney was one of the first, stimulated by the building of St Magnus Cathedral, which began in 1137.
Until then, despite being the seat of the Norwegian earldom of Orkney, Caithness and Shetland, Orkney was essentially rural. Wonderfully fertile, Orkney was a prime target for settlement in the ninth century. There may even have been Viking winter-camps in Orkney in the late eighth century, from which raiding parties set out for Lindisfarne, Iona and the monasteries of Ireland.
Published: 2004-09-11
