Major discoveries made in Woodstown Viking site - The Munster Express

Major discoveries made in Woodstown Viking site The Munster Express

Waterford has long been known as a Viking city, but last month discoveries on the Woodstown Viking site along the banks of the River Suir seem to confirm that the county has the largest preserved Viking site in Ireland.

Unlike archaeological sites in cities like Dublin or Waterford, the Woodstown Viking site has been uniquely preserved because the land had not been developed. This means evidence of life in Viking era Waterford exists just below a small layer of soil.

Earlier this month, The Munster Express visited the Woodstown site and spoke to Neil Jackman from Abarta Heritage, who gave a generous explanation of the Woodstown site, its significance, and the role it may have played in the international network of the Viking world.

The Woodstown site was first discovered in 2003 during surveys which were to prepare the site for the construction of the N25 road. Thankfully, the N25 was rerouted and the site was preserved.

Neil explained that this was one of the only instances where a major infrastructure project like a road had been completely changed by the existence of archaeological evidence. According to Neil, Ireland was an international leader in laws that protect archaeological finds.

This month’s dig in Woodstown was funded by the Royal Irish Academy and supported by the National Monument Service and Waterford City and County Council.

The June 2026 dig may have been the most significant excavation into Woodstown, but it was still a very small sample taken from a huge site.

It was explained that Woodstown contains evidence of up to 61 structures. The June dig was more akin to keyhole surgery than what might be suggested by the idea of an archaeological excavation.

Dr. Susan Curran explained the radar techniques used to map Woodstown before a sod was even turned.

“We use three different techniques, and they all bring something a little different. We have an overview of the site. Probably still not everything, because geo-physics does not get everything, but we know that we have a massive enclosure that extends through the next fields,” said Dr. Curran.

“We’ve identified up to 61 structures withing that enclosure. We have a sense of what was there and where they are.”

Neil Jackman explained that ideally, where circumstances allow, a major site like Woodstown should not be completely emptied at the first opportunity, but should be subject to targeted digs which will give insight into the site, but will also preserve it for the future, so that teams with better technology can check the work of these that went before and make new discoveries using improved techniques.

“Everything here is excavated by hand,” he explained. “There has been no machinery. All of this is done with shovels, trowels,” said Neil.

“And then tomorrow at the end of the day when we are finished up everything goes back into the trenches, and we return the ground exactly as it was.”

Neil went on to explain the structure they had targeted turned out to be far bigger than any other Viking structure in Ireland.

“The footprint of typical Viking house you might find in Dublin is about 8 to 9 metres long, maybe 4 metres wide,” he said. “This one we’re looking at is 18.5 metres long by about 5 metres. So, it’s pretty much double the size of all the rest of the buildings.

“We were wondering could we prove what geophysics was showing us what was in the ground, because sometimes what looks like a rectangular foundation might sometimes be a drip pool from the rain, in which case the building would be a little smaller.

“The second thing we were looking at in this largest structure was could we tell a little about the activities that went on within it, how it was built?

“This would be the largest Viking structure ever found in Ireland and it seems to be a hall or a longhouse. It would be the first one ever identified in Ireland. That’s what our evidence is pointing towards at the moment.”

Interestingly, it seems the Woodstown longhouse was not bult in the typical Viking style using pine, but was made with wattle and daub, a conventional Irish manner of wall building. According to Neil, this was likely because the Vikings would not have had the security or local knowledge to harvest suitable wood from the surrounding areas, and are likely to have forced Irish people to build the structure using local construction methods.

“The long house or the hall wasn’t just the private mansion of the most powerful person,” he continued. “They were actually public spaces in some ways, so all the warriors and the main people would be in there feasting every day.

“If you were a Viking man the idea was not just to be this guy with a big beard lopping heads off, you were expected to be a renaissance man, you had to be a good leader and brave warrior, but you were also expected to be a craftsman, a fine metal worker, as well as a sailor, and all of these other things.”

Neil explained that the Norwegian academics working on the Woodstown dig come from Rogaland in Norway, which has more Irish artifacts from the Viking age than the rest of Scandinavia, suggesting a strong connection between Ireland and the mountainous area of Norway.

“Already we are seeing from the significance of the archaeology, from the size of the structure, this is special,” he said.

Neil explained that the soil in Woodstown is particularly acidic, meaning the wattle and daub walls, or parts of Viking boats would not survive.

Despite this, he says the short targeted dig has provided more significant artifacts than they could have ever hoped for, and show that Woodstown is a site with major archaeological promise.

The artifacts unearthed at Woodstown suggest that it was once connected to an international network of Viking sites all around the world.

“One of the things they would have traded is people,” he continued. “They would be taking slaves. Although slavery existed before the Vikings, it was the Vikings that made slavery international because they connect it to this whole network that they had.

“We’ve actually got a coin that seems to be from Iraq. We found it during this dig and they found one previously here.

“It’s really showing the interconnected network the Vikings had, its’s amazing to think that here in this quiet field in Waterford was part of that network. We’re talking close to 2,000 years ago. So, it’s just astonishing. Woodstown is such an exciting site for that.”

More items uncovered last month include a gaming piece made from either soapstone or glass, a small hammer used for silverwork or fine metal working, a claw from a large bird of prey which suggests hawking, rivets from Viking ship maintenance, a religious piece with a Christian crosses and gilded Celtic designs, jewellery made form a malleable black stone, and a large weight used either for fishing or on a loom for cloth making.

Neil has been involved in much larger digs that have not delivered a fraction of the artifacts uncovered at Woodstown.

“They took this stuff during raids from early medieval monasteries in Ireland, and churches. They brought them to a place like this where they turn them into jewellery, because they [items from Ireland] often turn up in Norway in Women’s graves.”

He explained that items sent from Ireland back to Norway would have been highly prized and conferred status on those who wore them.

“For the women in Norway to wear these items from Ireland, that tells everyone about their status, that their husband or man was out on raiding, or perhaps they were out on raiding themselves.

“You can just imagine one of these big international trading hubs, you’d have Vikings that spent their time in Russia or Kiev, and Vikings that had been to Ireland or Wales. They would probably have some kind of artefact to show off where they had been.

“So, we got the daily life, the kind of activities, the evidence of trading, nails from a Viking ship, and you’ve got evidence of raiding as well. You couldn’t ask for more. It’s wonderful.

“The old story that they were just simple savages that came and raided everything and just came and took everything good and Ireland was this lovely place before they turned up — it’s way more complicate, way more nuanced than that.”

When asked if this would be a once-off dig, Neil said: “We certainly hope not but it’s very hard to say with certainty because everything is dependent upon funding”.

“We hope that we’ve made a good case here to come back and do more. But we’ll never excavate all of Woodstown, it’s just too big.”

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.