Investigating the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard workshop and exhibition

The Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard from National Museums Scotland is a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition full of remarkable objects and ground-breaking research into Viking-age Britain.

Buried around AD 900, the Galloway Hoard brings together a stunning variety of materials and treasures from Ireland, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and as far away as Asia. The Hoard transports us back to a critical movement in history: the formation of the political entities we now know as Scotland, England and Ireland, in a time of Viking raids.

Students will discover the fascinating details artefacts reveal about the ambitions, conflicts, relationships, and religious beliefs of people from medieval Britain. The different sources of the objects – from nearby in Ireland and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, to those from as far as Scandinavia, Rome and down the Silk Roads to Asia – will allow students to explore a world of connections.

In a pre or post exhibition workshop, students will uncover even more detail through hands-on investigation and analysis of replica Galloway Hoard artefacts.

In the workshop, students will learn how to analyse historical sources, how evidence from these objects is still being discovered, and what is means for our understanding of the Viking-age.

Through engaging with the treasures of the Galloway Hoard, students will experience firsthand how primary sources can shift perspectives and understandings of the past.

Students will experience

• A hands-on experience with rare artefacts.
• Deeper insight into a society at a time of transformation across the British Isles.
• Critical and creative thinking.

Students will learn

• About the methods and work of archaeologists, museum curators and conservators.
• How objects have stories and what they can reveal about the past.
• How medieval Europe was connected to the wider known world.
• About the contested nature of history.
• To interpret and analyse material evidence.  

Students will be provided

• Exhibition trail / activity booklet to complete within the exhibition and back at school!

Students will need

A pencil for making notes in booklets.

Other key information

• This is a 75-minute excursion which includes a 30-minute workshop and 45-minute self-guided visit to the exhibition.  
• Please note, the workshop and exhibition package can accommodate 30 students per session with up to 4 sessions available per day.