The Vikings built their houses from local material such as wood, stone or blocks of turf.

They lived in long rectangular houses made with upright timbers (wood).

The walls were made of wattle (woven sticks, covered with mud to keep out the wind and rain).

Viking houses were often one room homes with a cooking fire in the middle. The smoke escaped through a hole in the roof.

Animals and people lived in the same building. The animals lived in a byre at one end of the house and the people lived at the other.