L Anse aux Meadows

L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula, is the only confirmed Norse settlement in North America — authenticated by excavations in the 1960s by Helge and Anne Stine Insgstad, who discovered and excavated the turf longhouses built by the Norse around 1000 CE. The site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978 (one of the first 12 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world), and it remains the only physical evidence of Norse presence in the Americas from the Viking Age.

The discovery at L’Anse aux Meadows resolved one of the great historical questions of the Western world: had the Norse, whose sagas described a land called Vinland on the far western horizon of their Atlantic exploration, actually reached North America? The answer, confirmed by the archaeological evidence of the Norse-style turf longhouses, the Norse artifacts (a bronze cloak pin, a soapstone spindle whorl, iron boat rivets, and iron slag from a Norse-style bloomery forge), and the radiocarbon dating of the charcoal from the longhouse hearths (approximately 1000 CE — 500 years before Columbus) is unambiguous: yes. L’Anse aux Meadows is the physical proof that the known world was larger than Columbus thought he discovered.

L’Anse aux Meadows is primarily a cultural heritage and historical site rather than an outdoor recreation destination in the conventional sense, but the experience it offers is extraordinary. The archaeological site visit (the excavated and stabilized turf longhouse foundations — visible in the landscape as low earthen mounds; the site interpretation explains which structures are which based on the excavation record) is the physical encounter with the Norse presence. The reconstructed Norse buildings (Parks Canada has constructed three full-scale reconstructions of Norse turf longhouses adjacent to the archaeological site, based on the Ingstads’ excavation findings and parallel Norse building traditions from Iceland and Greenland; the reconstructed buildings are staffed by Parks Canada interpreters in Norse costume who demonstrate Norse crafts, iron smelting, and daily life; this is among the finest living-history interpretation in Atlantic Canada) provide the sensory immersion that the raw archaeological remains cannot. The coastal walking trail (a 4-kilometre trail along the Strait of Belle Isle shoreline north of the site — the same coastline the Norse looked out at 1,000 years ago; the trail provides views toward the Labrador shore across the Strait and passes through the coastal headland landscape that would have been immediately familiar to the Norse crew) contextualizes the site geographically. Whale watching from the coastal headland (minke and humpback whales are regularly seen from the coastal trail and from the site’s shoreline in summer — an incidental wildlife bonus), and the drive north from Rocky Harbour along Route 430 through the iceberg coast (the northern Great Northern Peninsula in May and June brings icebergs calved from Greenland within sight of the coastal road) provide the complementary experiences for a full day at L’Anse aux Meadows.

Summer (late June through August) is the primary season for L’Anse aux Meadows — the Parks Canada living-history interpretation program runs daily from mid-June through Labour Day, with the reconstructed longhouses staffed by interpreters, the blacksmith’s shop producing iron using the Norse bloomery method, and the full complement of interpretive programs available. Late June is the finest time if you can visit during the iceberg season overlap (icebergs typically remain in the Strait of Belle Isle and off the Great Northern Peninsula coast through mid-June to early July in most years — the combination of the Norse site and the drifting icebergs in the same day’s journey is a uniquely Newfoundland conjunction of ancient and geological history). July through August brings the site to its maximum visitor level — the atmosphere is lively, the interpretation is in full swing, and the coastal walk and whale watching are at their best. The shoulder seasons (late May through mid-June and September through early October) offer the site with dramatically reduced visitor numbers — September is particularly fine, with the summer interpretation programs winding down but the site accessible and the fall light on the coastal landscape exceptional. The site closes in winter (typically October through mid-May).

The Norse sagas — particularly the Grænlendinga saga and the Eiriks saga rauða — describe a series of Norse voyages to a land called Vinland, Markland, and Helluland in the decades around 1000 CE, beginning with Leif Eriksson’s voyage from Greenland (approximately 1000 CE) and followed by colonization attempts by Thorfinn Karlsefni (approximately 1010 CE). The saga descriptions of Vinland (a warm land to the south, with wild grapes and self-sown wheat) generated centuries of scholarly debate about whether the Norse had reached North America and, if so, where. The Ingstads’ discovery of the L’Anse aux Meadows site in 1960 (led by local fisherman George Decker, who directed Helge Ingstad to the mounds he had always known were there) and the subsequent archaeological excavations (1961-1968, conducted by a multinational team led by Anne Stine Ingstad) produced the definitive evidence: the turf longhouses, the Norse artifacts (particularly the soapstone spindle whorl — an object used only by women in Norse culture, establishing the presence of Norse women at the site — and the bronze cloak pin of Norse type), and the radiocarbon dates all aligned. L’Anse aux Meadows was a base camp and ship repair facility; the “Vinland” of the sagas (with its wild grapes) is believed to have been further south, perhaps in New England or the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with L’Anse aux Meadows serving as the northern gateway.

L’Anse aux Meadows sits on a low coastal headland at the meeting of the Strait of Belle Isle and the Gulf of St. Lawrence — the narrows between Newfoundland and Labrador where the cold Labrador Current meets the warmer Gulf of St. Lawrence water, creating a zone of exceptional ocean productivity (the same upwelling that sustains the northern Newfoundland cod fishery and the seasonal iceberg drift). The coastal landscape at L’Anse aux Meadows is a post-glacial coastal terrace — low, flat, and sheltered from the prevailing westerly winds by the headland to the north, with Black Duck Brook flowing through a shallow estuary that would have provided fresh water for the Norse settlement and a sheltered landing place for the Norse ships. The geological context is the ancient Grenvillian basement rock of the Long Range Mountains (the same Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks that underlie Gros Morne), here worn to a low coastal plain by repeated glaciation. The flat, low site (the turf houses were partially dug into the ground surface for insulation) was chosen by the Norse for the same practical reasons that any maritime settlement chooses a sheltered coastal location: fresh water, protection from prevailing wind, and access to the sea.

L’Anse aux Meadows is not a primary wildlife destination, but the northern Great Northern Peninsula coast — and the Strait of Belle Isle in particular — is a rich marine environment. Minke whales (common in the Strait of Belle Isle in summer), humpback whales (occasional, particularly in July and August when the capelin are schooling in the Strait), harbour porpoise (year-round in the strait waters), and grey seal and harbour seal (on the offshore rocks and the coastal ledges) are regularly observed from the coastal trail and from the site’s shoreline. Icebergs (in May and June — the Strait of Belle Isle is one of the primary routes by which Greenland icebergs drift south; the combination of a 1,000-year-old Norse site and icebergs in the same visual field is the most symbolically powerful image on the Great Northern Peninsula), bald eagle (nesting along the coastal headlands), and the full suite of northern coastal seabirds (black guillemot, common murre, Atlantic puffin on the offshore islands, black-legged kittiwake) complete the wildlife picture. The coastal heath (crowberry, Labrador tea, and arctic willow) supports willow ptarmigan and snow bunting in the coastal scrub.