L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Park

Roads 430 and 436 from the TransCanada Highway, Deer Lake turn-off, about 400 km (250 mi.) north of Corner Brook, Newfoundland.

L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Park, a green plain with some moorland, lies at the northern tip of the Newfoundland Great Northern Peninsula. Here were discovered six houses made of grass sods, probably built by the Vikings around the year 1000. Since 1978 it has been the first of its kind to be included in the UNESCO World List of Protected Cultural Monuments.

Back in 1962 a small Viking settlement dating from around ad 1000 was discovered here. It is the oldest known European settlement in North America and to date is the only authentic trace of Viking settlements in the New World. Probably L'Anse aux Meadows is the "Vinland" discovered by Leif Erikson. In the excavations carried out by the Norwegian Helge Ingstad between 1961 and 1968 at least six houses made of turves were discovered, including a smithy of the kind built by the Norwegians in Iceland. Iron relics, various kinds of artifacts clearly of Norwegian origin, as well as bones, peat and charcoal all came to light. Three reconstructed houses are open to visitors; a long-house, a workshop and a stable. The finds unearthed here are on display in the Visitors' Centre.