Neil Hopcroft

We took another trip to Gamla Uppsala. This time just before Walpurgis Night so there was a big bonfire being built – Uppsala is one of the main centres for the Walpurgis celebrations in Sweden.

Just down the road from Mörby borgruin is an ancient gravefield.“This cemetery consists of 125 graves and dates from the late Iron Age (500-1100AD). The people who buried their dead here lived at a settlement situated somewhere close to the cemetery”

Nearby the ancient settlement of Runsa is a stone burial ship.

We went to visit the Vikings again, for another banquet.

The longboat was moored on the shores of Nörderon, next to where the ferry lands, waiting to be taken out of the water before the ice comes. The ferry is replaced by an ice road in the depths of winter. We were waiting for a large enough crew to hold the boat steady as it was raised on […]

Broborg is an ancient hill fort in Knivsta kommun, it remains somewhat imprenetrable even these days, with the signs suggesting that you climb several banks of boulders to reach the top – there is a better way up but I didn’t find that until I had already scaled the rocks.

Just outside the small village of Markim there are some gravefields.

We stopped by Uppsala, visiting the old town this time. I was expecting this to be more of a town, instead it is the site of the ancient village, with a number of burial mounds and a lot of history.

Sun shining through the ‘chimney’ of the Longhouse.

Vikings enjoying the lake at the bottom of the garden. There are beautiful views over the lake to the mountains in the background.