A Viking village set of tents and turf huts among boulders on a green lakeshore — The Kattegat set on the shore of Lough Tay, May 2016, seen from the hillside: tents, turf huts and boulders between the lake and the woods. kilgarron · CC BY 2.0

Travis Fimmel, Ragnar Lothbrok, at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2015. Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0
Travis Fimmel 2015
played Ragnar Lothbrok
Katheryn Winnick, Lagertha, in March 2019. Original: Greg2600 Derivative work: Mithoron · CC BY-SA 2.0
Katheryn Winnick 2019
played Lagertha
Gustaf Skarsgård, Floki, in January 2013, weeks before the first episode. Frankie Fouganthin · CC BY-SA 3.0
Gustaf Skarsgård 2013
played Floki

History, 2013–2020 · built in County Wicklow, out of the Viking Age

Vikings

Kattegat was a peat-dark lake on the Guinness estate. Build the hull plank over plank, and each strake opens a real place.

Where this comes from

Behind: The Kattegat set on the shore of Lough Tay, May 2016, seen from the hillside: tents, turf huts and boulders between the lake and the woods. kilgarron · CC BY 2.0

Clinker, from the keel up

Clench the strakes.

Its timber was felled around 890. It is clinker-built, mostly of oak, with sixteen tapered planks a side. Each plank laps the one below and is clenched to it with rivets. This hull has twelve, one for each place.

Where this comes from

The garboard is laid along the keel: Kattegat’s lake. Lough Tay, the Kattegat shore.

A dark lake in a steep green valley with a pale beach at its near end — Lough Tay from above in May 2014, with the pale beach at its northern end. kilgarron · CC BY 2.0

Garboard strake · Below the R759, Luggala, County Wicklow

Lough Tay, the Kattegat shore

Lough Tay stands in for the village of Kattegat in Vikings.

Wicklow’s tourism board says Kattegat was regularly set up on its shore, and is best seen from the road above.

The whole lake belongs to the Guinness estate at Luggala. The family are said to have brought in white sand for its northern beach, so the lake would look like a pint.

On the set in 2016 the crew told Patricia Bracewell they liked it for having no modern buildings or poles; its cliffs, woods and meadows could pass for Norway, England, France or Iceland.

It lies between Djouce and Luggala, under Luggala’s granite cliffs, and covers about 48 hectares.

The lake and its shore belong to the Luggala estate and access is limited. Look down on it from the car parks on the R759, such as J. B. Malone and Ballinastoe Wood.

Where this comes from

Lough Tay and the Boyne, summer 2016

Knock on the hull.

The fleet is built by a company near Prague. The three smaller workhorses are fibreglass, painted to look clinker-built; the two larger ships are plywood, because oak would cost and weigh too much.

Where this comes from

Five longships on the lake. Knock on one.

The two larger ships carry an extra strake and a higher freeboard, for safety. Between episodes and seasons the hulls are repainted and the sails and figureheads changed, so five ships can be many.

One of the large ships is new in summer 2016 and has not yet been seen on screen; it is meant for the fifth season.

The lakeshore village is taken down and rebuilt at Ashford Studios, about twelve miles away. The cast, most of the crew and the ships move to a second Viking village on the Boyne at Slane, with a temporary wharf.

The set was on private riverbank. See the river from Slane Bridge and the village.

Who was Ragnar?

Saga, record or set.

The series draws on the sagas of Ragnar Lothbrok, Ragnar’s saga and the Tale of Ragnar’s Sons, and on Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum, and squeezes more than a century into a few seasons. Enniskerry’s guide says it was the backdrop for Aslaug’s first appearance, and stood in for Scandinavian wilderness.

Where this comes from

Travis Fimmel, bearded, speaking into a microphone — Travis Fimmel, Ragnar Lothbrok, at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2015. Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0

Katheryn Winnick smiling, fair hair loose — Katheryn Winnick, Lagertha, in March 2019. Original: Greg2600 Derivative work: Mithoron · CC BY-SA 2.0

Hairy breeches
Where this comes from
8 June 793
Where this comes from
Kattegat, a town
Where this comes from
Aslaug, Sigurd’s daughter
Where this comes from
Reginherus at Paris, 845
Where this comes from
Fibreglass longships
Where this comes from
Lagertha the shieldmaiden
Where this comes from
The Great Army, 865
Where this comes from

Eight cards. Put each in a pile.

Saga: Told in the sagas and in Saxo, centuries later
Record: Written down at or near the time
Set: Made up or built for the series

Lindisfarne, Holy Island

8 June 793.

Red sandstone ruins with a tall arch against a pale sky — Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island, May 2016. August Schwerdfeger · CC BY 4.0

635
King Oswald brings Aidan from Iona and gives him Lindisfarne.
8 June 793
Vikings raid Lindisfarne: their first significant attack in western Europe. The first season of Vikings builds towards it.
793
Alcuin, a York scholar at Charlemagne’s court, writes in dismay to the Northumbrian king and the bishop of Lindisfarne.
875
The monks leave Lindisfarne for good and, after seven years, settle at Chester-le-Street.

Open daily, but only when the tide allows: the causeway floods at high tide, so check Northumberland’s crossing times before you set out. English Heritage members go free.

Where this comes from

English Heritage

Lindisfarne Priory

Holy Island, Northumberland · Open daily, tides permitting · members free · advance tickets save 15%

The priory on Holy Island where the Viking Age is said to begin, open daily when the tide allows.

Check times

Vestfold and Oslo

Two mounds.

The ships the series’ fleet was painted to look like came out of the ground in Norway.

Oseberg, 1904

Men in hats standing in a trench in front of the curved prow of a buried ship — Digging out the Oseberg ship, 1904. Unknown author · Public domain

Two women are buried in the Oseberg ship near Tønsberg. Gabriel Gustafson and Haakon Shetelig dig the Oseberg ship out of its mound.

The Oseberg burial is dated to autumn 834; the grave held the only complete Viking Age cart yet found.

A long dark wooden ship on display in a white vaulted hall — The Gokstad ship in the old Viking Ship Museum on Bygdøy, July 2017. Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia · CC BY 2.0

The former Viking Ship Museum on Bygdøy is closed while the new Museum of the Viking Age is prepared. In April 2026 the museum said all its Viking ships and the Oseberg sledges were safely in place in the new building.

Closed while the new museum is prepared. Its English page gives no opening date; check before you travel.

Where this comes from

Gokstad, 1880

An old photograph of a ship’s hull lying in a dug-out mound, people watching from above — The Gokstad ship in its mound at Gokstad farm, about 1880. Unknown author · Public domain

The Gokstad ship was dug out of the King’s Mound at Gokstad farm in spring 1880, under Nicolay Nicolaysen. Its timber was felled around 890. It is clinker-built, mostly of oak, with sixteen tapered planks a side.

A grassy mound behind a stone gateway and a low stone wall — Gokstadhaugen, the King’s Mound at Gokstad in Sandefjord, October 2022. Fotoglede · CC BY-SA 4.0

The mound was made good again and rededicated in July 1929, with King Haakon VII among the crowd. A sign 23.5 metres long beside it marks out the length of the ship.

An open field monument at Gokstad in Sandefjord. The ship itself is in Oslo.

Where this comes from

The R759, above Luggala

Back to the lake.

A long dark lake under steep cliffs, heather in the foreground — Lough Tay under the granite cliffs of Luggala, September 2017. kilgarron · CC BY 2.0

The whole lake belongs to the Guinness estate at Luggala. The family are said to have brought in white sand for its northern beach, so the lake would look like a pint.

The series makes Kattegat a village; the real Kattegat is the sea between Denmark and Sweden.

On the set in 2016 the crew told Patricia Bracewell they liked it for having no modern buildings or poles; its cliffs, woods and meadows could pass for Norway, England, France or Iceland. The lakeshore village is taken down and rebuilt at Ashford Studios, about twelve miles away.

It lies between Djouce and Luggala, under Luggala’s granite cliffs, and covers about 48 hectares.

The lake and its shore belong to the Luggala estate and access is limited. Look down on it from the car parks on the R759, such as J. B. Malone and Ballinastoe Wood.

Where this comes from

An Óige

Glendalough International Hostel

Glendalough, County Wicklow · Open year-round · rates on booking

A modern hostel a short walk from Glendalough’s lakes and monastic site, in the Wicklow Mountains: private and dorm rooms.

See rooms

Plank over plank.
Where it all is now.

Where it is now

11 places to visit, in three parts. Ashford Studios, where Kattegat was rebuilt, is a private working studio: it is named below but not pinned. Lough Tay is private estate land, pinned for the view from the road above.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The lake and its shore belong to the Luggala estate and access is limited. Look down on it from the car parks on the R759, such as J. B. Malone and Ballinastoe Wood.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Paid entry through the waterfall’s own gate, about six miles from the main estate entrance, with parking and a picnic area at the foot. Check powerscourt.com for this season’s hours.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Walk the Blessington Greenway along the shore from Blessington towards Russborough House.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Avoca village sits below the old workings. Keep to roads and marked paths: the pits are deep and the old shafts are not safe.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An open ruin on the shore just south of the harbour, a short walk from the town.

Lough Tay from above in May 2014, with the pale beach at its northern end. kilgarron · CC BY 2.0
Below the R759, Luggala, County Wicklow
Lough Tay, the Kattegat shore
Lough Tay stands in for the village of Kattegat in Vikings.
The lake and its shore belong to the Luggala estate and access is limited. Look down on it from the car parks on the R759, such as J. B. Malone and Ballinastoe Wood.
Where this comes from
Powerscourt Waterfall on the Dargle, 2017. Scaramanga731 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Powerscourt Estate, near Enniskerry, County Wicklow
Powerscourt Waterfall
The waterfall drops 121 metres on the River Dargle, on the Powerscourt Estate near Enniskerry.
Paid entry through the waterfall’s own gate, about six miles from the main estate entrance, with parking and a picnic area at the foot. Check powerscourt.com for this season’s hours.
Where this comes from
The Poulaphouca Reservoir, the Blessington Lakes, in December 2025. Ridiculopathy · CC0
Poulaphouca Reservoir, Blessington, County Wicklow
The Blessington Lakes
Longship scenes were shot on the Poulaphouca Reservoir and at Luggala in August 2012.
Walk the Blessington Greenway along the shore from Blessington towards Russborough House.
Where this comes from
Restored ore bins at the old St Patrick’s copper mine, Avoca, 2024, with an engine-house chimney on the hill. Colin Park · CC BY-SA 2.0
Cronebane and East Avoca, above Avoca, County Wicklow
The Avoca copper mines
Wicklow’s tourism board says the mines and their landscape were the set of many battles, across the two Viking series.
Avoca village sits below the old workings. Keep to roads and marked paths: the pits are deep and the old shafts are not safe.
Where this comes from
The Black Castle on its rock just south of Wicklow harbour, September 2020. Jonjobaker · CC BY-SA 4.0
Castle Field, Wicklow town
Wicklow harbour and the Black Castle
The county guide says longships were often seen off the coast between the Black Castle and Brittas Bay while the two series were filming.
An open ruin on the shore just south of the harbour, a short walk from the town.
Where this comes from

A village road with a row of gabled houses and shops — Ashford village, County Wicklow, 2007: the studio itself is private. Sarah777 at English Wikipedia · Public domain

County Wicklow · not pinned

Ashford Studios

Ashford Studios was newly built when filming began in July 2012, chosen for its scenery and for tax advantages. The Kattegat village on Lough Tay’s shore was taken down and rebuilt at Ashford, about twelve miles away.

A working studio, closed to the public. Named here, never pinned; the photograph is Ashford village.

Where this comes from

Stay

Two hostels in the mountains.

An Óige’s farmhouse on the Wicklow Way in the Glencree valley, and its hostel at Glendalough.

An Óige

Knockree Hostel

Glencree valley, County Wicklow · Open year-round · rates on booking

A restored eighteenth-century farmhouse in the Glencree valley, with the Wicklow Way running through its grounds: dorms, private rooms and glamping.

See rooms

An Óige

Glendalough International Hostel

Glendalough, County Wicklow · Open year-round · rates on booking

A modern hostel a short walk from Glendalough’s lakes and monastic site, in the Wicklow Mountains: private and dorm rooms.

See rooms

Go there

A waterfall, two museums, a priory.

Powerscourt’s falls, Viking Ireland and Dublinia in Dublin, Lindisfarne when the tide allows, and marketplace tours of Wicklow and Viking Dublin.

Powerscourt Estate

Powerscourt Waterfall

Powerscourt Estate, near Enniskerry · Paid entry at the waterfall gate · hours by season

Aslaug’s waterfall, 121 metres on the Dargle, with its own gate, parking and picnic area at the foot.

Plan a visit

National Museum of Ireland

Viking Ireland at the National Museum

Kildare Street, Dublin 2 · Free · Tue–Sat 10:00–17:00, Sun–Mon 13:00–17:00

Finds from the museum’s own digs in Viking Dublin, at the heart of a permanent exhibition on Kildare Street.

Plan a visit

Dublinia

St Michael’s Hill, Dublin 8 · Daily 10:00–17:00 · adults €18 at the door, children €11.50

Viking and medieval Dublin at Christ Church, with a medieval tower to climb.

Book tickets

English Heritage

Lindisfarne Priory

Holy Island, Northumberland · Open daily, tides permitting · members free · advance tickets save 15%

The priory on Holy Island where the Viking Age is said to begin, open daily when the tide allows.

Check times

Viator · Ad / affiliate

Wicklow Mountains tours from Dublin

County Wicklow

Live marketplace results for day tours into the Wicklow Mountains. Some stop above Lough Tay; check each itinerary.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

Viator · Ad / affiliate

Viking Dublin tours

Dublin

Live marketplace results for Viking and medieval walking tours of Dublin. Check each route.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

What’s on

Vikings beyond the Pale.

An evening on the Viking Irish Sea at Dublinia, 6 November 2026.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

Two books.

Neil Price’s history of the Vikings, and the saga that Ragnar’s follows.

Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

Children of Ash and Elm

Neil Price

An archaeologist’s history of the Vikings, Basic Books, 2020.

Find the book

Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

The Saga of the Volsungs

Penguin Classics

The saga that Ragnar’s own saga follows in the manuscript, and the story of Aslaug’s parents.

Find the book

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

Mind the tide.

Where this comes from

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources. Wicklow, the Boyne and Ashford are where the series was made; Lindisfarne, Dublin and the Norwegian mounds are the Viking Age it drew on, told as history.

Search all places and Moments Current state Sort

12 of 12 places · 35 of 35 Moments

Lough Tay, the Kattegat shore
Below the R759, Luggala, County Wicklow
- Kattegat is a sea
  The series makes Kattegat a village; the real Kattegat is the sea between Denmark and Sweden.
- Kattegat on the shore
  Lough Tay’s shore becomes Kattegat.
- The village moves
  The lakeshore village is taken down and rebuilt at Ashford Studios, about twelve miles away.
- Built near Prague
  The fleet is built by a company near Prague. The three smaller workhorses are fibreglass, painted to look clinker-built; the two larger ships are plywood, because oak would cost and weigh too much.
- One strake more
  The two larger ships carry an extra strake and a higher freeboard, for safety.
- New paint, new heads
  Between episodes and seasons the hulls are repainted and the sails and figureheads changed, so five ships can be many.
- A ship for season five
  One of the large ships is new in summer 2016 and has not yet been seen on screen; it is meant for the fifth season.
Ashford Studios
Ashford, County Wicklow
- 3 March 2013
  Vikings begins on History. Six seasons and 89 episodes follow; the last half-season comes out on Amazon Prime Video on 30 December 2020.
- A new studio
  Filming begins in July 2012 at the newly built Ashford Studios, picked for its scenery and tax advantages.
- Seventy per cent outside
  About 70 per cent of the first season is shot outdoors in Wicklow; some background shots come from western Norway.
- The sagas behind it
  The series draws on the sagas of Ragnar Lothbrok, Ragnar’s saga and the Tale of Ragnar’s Sons, and on Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum, and squeezes more than a century into a few seasons.
- Hairy breeches
  Lothbrok is usually glossed as hairy breeches, after the odd protective clothing Ragnar wears in the legend to win Thora.
- A shieldmaiden in Saxo
  Lagertha comes from Saxo Grammaticus’s account, written about 1200, where she is a shieldmaiden and Ragnar’s wife.
- Paris, 845
  A Viking leader called Reginherus, or Ragnar, leads the siege of Paris. Some have tied him to the legend; historians dispute it.
- The Great Army, 865
  Tradition says Ragnar’s sons led the Great Heathen Army of 865; most modern scholars hold most of Ragnar’s story to be fiction.
Powerscourt Waterfall
Powerscourt Estate, near Enniskerry, County Wicklow
- Aslaug at the falls
  Aslaug first appears with Powerscourt Waterfall behind her.
- Sigurd’s daughter
  In Ragnar’s saga, a 13th-century Icelandic sequel of sorts to the Völsunga saga, Aslaug is the daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild, in hiding.
The Blessington Lakes
Poulaphouca Reservoir, Blessington, County Wicklow
- Longships on the reservoir
  Longship scenes are shot on the Poulaphouca Reservoir and at Luggala.
- The valley floods
  The Liffey is dammed at Poulaphouca and the valley begins to flood.
The Avoca copper mines
Cronebane and East Avoca, above Avoca, County Wicklow
- Battles in the spoil
  The old mines and their landscape become the set of many battles.
- Copper in the valley
  Copper mining in the Avoca valley is recorded from around 1720 and ends in 1982.
Wicklow harbour and the Black Castle
Castle Field, Wicklow town
- Off the coast
  Longships are seen offshore between the Black Castle and Brittas Bay.
- A Viking harbour
  Vikings make a base of Wicklow’s natural harbour; the town’s name is usually traced to their Old Norse.
The Boyne at Slane
Slane Bridge, County Meath
- A second village
  The cast, most of the crew and the ships move to a second Viking village on the Boyne at Slane, with a temporary wharf.
Viking Ireland, National Museum
Kildare Street, Dublin 2
- Dublin under the streets
  The museum’s own digs in Dublin, the most important Viking site in Ireland, fill the centre of Viking Ireland.
Dublinia
St Michael’s Hill, Christ Church, Dublin 8
Lindisfarne Priory
Holy Island, Northumberland, TD15 2RX
- A monastery on the island
  King Oswald brings Aidan from Iona and gives him Lindisfarne.
- 8 June 793
  Vikings raid Lindisfarne: their first significant attack in western Europe. The first season of Vikings builds towards it.
- A letter from Alcuin
  Alcuin, a York scholar at Charlemagne’s court, writes in dismay to the Northumbrian king and the bishop of Lindisfarne.
- The monks leave
  The monks leave Lindisfarne for good and, after seven years, settle at Chester-le-Street.
The Gokstad Mound
Gokstad, Sandefjord, Vestfold
- Oak felled
  Timber for the Gokstad ship is felled: sixteen planks a side, clinker-built, mostly oak.
- Out of the King’s Mound
  Nicolay Nicolaysen digs the Gokstad ship out of the mound at Gokstad farm.
- The mound made good
  The mound is rebuilt and rededicated, with King Haakon VII and two to three thousand people there.
Museum of the Viking Age
Bygdøy, Oslo
- A burial in autumn
  Two women are buried in the Oseberg ship near Tønsberg.
- Oseberg comes out
  Gabriel Gustafson and Haakon Shetelig dig the Oseberg ship out of its mound.
- The old museum shuts
  The Viking Ship Museum on Bygdøy closes while the new Museum of the Viking Age is prepared; by April 2026 the ships are in place inside it.