Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Viking longhouse project is right on track


By FERGUS McEWAN
Reporter


MANY hands are making light work of an ambitious £78,000 living history project at the Ard Whallan outdoor education centre.

After months of fundraising, work began in April to build an authentic Viking longhouse on the slopes overlooking West Baldwin, designed to give a taste of life in the Island 1,000 years ago.


It will eventually form part of a Viking homestead where school parties will be able to make clothes and furniture, as well as cook, weave and tend to hens and sheep.


The Department of Education-led project required a lot of tough physical labour to build solid dry-stone walls and sturdy wicker fences by hand, but staff from Scottish Provident International Life Assurance (SPILA) were happy to help.


In the last five months, most of the firm's 130 Island-based staff have swapped their office for a wind-swept hillside to bond as a team and get involved in what they called a 'worthy community scheme'.


Under the supervision of an expert, these hardy volunteers have put up fences marking a path up the hill to the site of the longhouse, where the walls are still under a metre tall but rising every day.


Visitors will pass through rows of saplings planted by school children, expected to grow within 15 years into an ancient woodland of trees indigenous to the Island in Viking times.


Once the walls of the longhouse are two metres tall, these same trees — including oak, beech, willow and Scot's pine — will be used along with Manx timber to create a roof frame and thatch roofing.


Those species which no longer grow around West Baldwin or even in the Island will be provided by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.


Ard Whallan education officer Paul Young said support from the government and volunteers had allowed the project to maintain its ethos of using authentic materials and building methods.


Although completion was still some way off, Mr Young said young people and adults visiting the centre would benefit from a rare opportunity to experience first-hand the life of ancient Island dwellers.


A spokesman for SPILA said: 'As part of its corporate social responsibility, SPILA feels it is very important to assist in educational programmes such as this.


'Many employees have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of getting involved and have even learnt a few skills along the way.


'Lillian Boyle, managing director of SPILA, said the project was an 'opportunity to put something back into the community' which would 'aid youngsters in learning about living life in Viking times'.


From: IOM TODAY

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