Settlement Overview: Dublin

Dublin is located on the east coast of Ireland, about halfway down the coastline. Dublin had access to the northern parts of Ireland, heavily based on agriculture. Due to Dublin’s location on the coastline, trade routes were easy to establish for the Vikings. Williams, Smith, and Taylor also describe how Dublin was one of the wealthiest towns under Viking control. The Vikings could defeat any incoming threat due to their warriors mostly being in Dublin.

Julian D. Richards, focuses on Viking settlement in his work. Richards focuses on Viking settlement in Ireland while also analyzing the societal structure of the Scandinavians. Richards writes, “Dublin…emerged as a small and powerful kingdom until the Norse were ousted by an Irish coalition in 902…. A short period of relative peace was followed by renewed raiding…by the mid-10th century it ruled over a substantial hinterland…” (Richards, 2018). Tensions between the native Irish and the Vikings continued to build over the centuries. Eventually, the Vikings were forced out of Ireland, and the Irish kings fought for control over Dublin because of its powerful position and wealth from trade.

Archaeological Sites

Dublin was modeled after Viking towns in Scandinavia. Gareth Williams, Beverley Ballin Smith, and Simon Taylor wrote West Over Sea: Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement Before 1300. This work details the structure of Viking age homes in Dublin. Williams, Smith, and Taylor write, “These are characterized by their rectangular shape with a door at each end, central hearth, side benches and wattle construction…dating from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. Type 1 houses became less popular…but they persisted…distinct from contemporary Irish and Scandinavian dwellings” (Williams, Smith, Taylor, 2007). Archaeological work in Ireland has uncovered great details about the past that would have been otherwise lost. Having details about Viking dwellings provides details about daily life in medieval Ireland.

Archaeological evidence about Dublin is very important to understand. Rebecca Boyd and David Stone wrote “Where next for Ireland’s Viking Towns? Reconsidering environmental Archaeology and Viking Age Urban Deposits” which analyzes artifacts from archaeological sites. Boyd and Stone write, “Wood and charcoal: Wood species identification of artefacts and building materials in Dublin…shows the composition and management…of local alder, ash and hazel woodlands. There are local choices regarding which species to use, exemplified by oak, which was reserved for shipbuilding in Dublin but used for house construction in Waterford” (Boyd and Stone 2021). Knowing where the Vikings were getting their building materials assists in our understanding of how interconnected Viking settlements were. The building materials can be dated to know the time frame they were used in construction. The Vikings were very smart to utilize different species of wood for ship versus house construction. Gaining access to woodlands would have been fundamental for the Vikings to survive.

Eileen McAuley in her work analyzes archaeological sites. McAuley writes, “The Vikings used to burn the old houses to the ground and build a new house on the same foundations. Excavators know this because black scorch marks are still present at the bottom of the wooden foundations. As many as three layers of houses have been found and excavators have hopes of finding earlier dwellings underneath” (McAuley, 1979). This process of building homes over the old foundation is very interesting. There have been many groups throughout history that have done similar things to pre-existing houses. Dating the wood from these foundations would have allowed archaeologists and historians to know the pre and post-Viking world in Ireland.