Viking Footprints

Viking Footprints is a Viking Age themed activity company and living history project based in Hyllestad, west Norway. Here, close to the mouth of Norway’s longest fjord, Sognefjord, we have the Fjord Coast area. It’s an area full of significant traces of the Viking Age and key parts of its story.

Our intention is to provide visitors to our area of Norway with a fun and relaxing introduction to the smaller details of the Viking story and to be centre for learning, courses and discussion around the Viking Age and the subsequent footprints it left behind.

All around us in Hyllestad, west Norway we have many important parts of the Viking story present. From the local production of millstones that resulted in international trade, to the centre of law and politics at Gulatinget. Also close by are Rivedal, where Ingólfr Arnarson left Norway to become the first documented settler in Iceland, and Solund where Harald Hardråde mustered his fleet in 1066 before setting off for his ill-fated campaign and defeat in England at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Our area also played a significant role in the changes of belief in the latter part of the Viking Age, with the local stone quarries producing some of the earliest stone crosses here in Norway, many of which can still be seen today.

We are Viking enthusiasts and so we use interpretative guiding techniques as a means of learning, and providing a more enjoyable and accessible experience of all aspects of the history of the Viking Age.

Our key focuses are:

• Providing a visitor attraction during the spring, summer and autumn seasons.

• Interpretative guiding as a means to learn about the Viking Age and have fun!

• Promoting the history of the Viking Age on the Fjord Coast.

• Promoting the preservation of immaterial cultural heritage, especially in the areas of handcrafting, plant dyed textiles, weaving and other textile production methods.

• Experimental archaeology in plant and food production in our ‘Viking Garden’.

• Highlighting the ongoing ‘footprints’ that the Viking Age left, including textiles and traditional wooden boat building – we currently have two examples of clinker-built wooden boat types.

• Provider a centre for learning and expertise in the Viking Age working with local and international partners, in particular our local fellow members of the Destination Viking Association at Musea I Sogn og Fjordane (Kvernsteinsparken) and Gulatinget.

• Promotion of all our activities through innovative uses of social media, podcasts and videos.