Primary 4 have been finding out about local history in the time of the Vikings.

The Vikings attacked but also stayed and built villages in our area over 1000 years ago. There are Viking names near Castle Douglas such as Screel and Gelston. In 2014 Viking Treasure, which had been hidden underground, was found in Galloway – it is called the Galloway Hoard. https://www.nms.ac.uk/gallowayhoard

We went on a visit to Trusty’s Hill near Gatehouse to explore and imagine what it may have been like to attack and defend a hillfort.  The hillfort had very steep sides and would have had four ditches and wooden walls to try and get past if it was being attacked. It was very difficult to carry a shield and an axe and also try to climb up the steep sides.

Then we came back to school and pretended that we were arriving from our Viking Longships on to a beach. We had to work as a team and had only 20 minutes to make a shelter from ropes and sails.

We thought about games Viking children may have played. There was no electricity or plastic then – what did they do? Our challenge was to design and make games using things lying about in the playground – we enjoyed having a go at each other’s games.

We also had a Viking feast and shared stories round the fire.

Have a look at some pictures of our day and what we learned . (Click on a picture to enlarge and view).

a) The Battle (Captions and comments to be added)

Making Shelters and Feasting

Viking Games