L'Anse aux Meadows

In 1960 a Norwegian couple following the sagas found the outlines of turf buildings on a windswept meadow at the far tip of Newfoundland, and excavation confirmed what nobody had been able to prove: Norse people crossed the Atlantic and built here around the year 1000, roughly five centuries before Columbus. Eight turf-walled structures were identified, including a smithy where bog iron was worked, and the finds, a bronze cloak pin and a spindle whorl among them, settled the argument. The original outlines are preserved as low grassy mounds, with reconstructed sod longhouses beside them where interpreters in period dress work. It is bleak, treeless and often blowing, which makes the achievement land harder than any museum could.

What you actually see

• The original house outlines - low turf mounds where the Norse buildings stood.
• The reconstructed longhouses - sod buildings with fires and interpreters at work.
• The finds - the cloak pin and spindle whorl that proved the case.
• The setting - the treeless meadow above a grey sea at the tip of the island.

When to go

June to September only, as the site closes for the long winter. Even in summer it is cold, wet and windy, so proper layers matter. Icebergs drift past this coast in late spring and early summer, and whales feed offshore through the season.

Honest expectations

It is a very long way from anywhere, a full day's drive up the Great Northern Peninsula from Deer Lake, and the site is closed for most of the year. Physically there is little to see beyond grass outlines and reconstructions; the significance is intellectual rather than visual. The weather is genuinely raw even in July.

Nearby

St Anthony has the services and iceberg tours; Gros Morne is a long drive south.