The Viking's

  St Brendan the Celtic Monk and perhaps many more before him, left Ireland in a skin covered boat called a Currach, they settled Iceland, Greenland and North America,in the years of 500-700 B.C.

People have crossed the Atlantic in kayaks, rowboats, and simple rafts.  The Vikings sailed to Ireland; The Vikings had used their long ships to expand their horizons.

 Gardar Svarvasson discovered Iceland in 861, Norse settlers started arriving shortly later, only to find Celtic monks from Ireland already there. As a matter of a fact they were there for centuries according to some records.

Iceland was the home of Eric the Red not Norway as many historians mistakenly reported.  In 982 Eric set sail for Greenland and landed at Mid Glacier, now called Blacks Arc. He explored the coastal area of Greenland and settled permanently in Tunugdliarfik on the Fjord on the south western coast.

 He was the first Icelander to settle Greenland but alas the Celtic Monks beat him their also.  In 831 Pope Gregory IV, declared that Greenland would be administered by the Archbishop of Hamburg.

 A short time later thirty five long boats left Iceland, for Eric’s homestead on Greenland with one thousand settlers but only fourteen ships with four hundred settlers arrived, in the year 986 BC.

 A year later Bjarni Herjulfsson set sail to join his father, in Eric the Reds new settlement, but was blown off course. He discovered Cape Cod, progressed up the coast to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland before arriving at the Fjord at Tunugdliarfik.

 Eric’s new found settlement survived for close to 400 years growing to support 16 parish churches, a monastery, and a convent.Thirteen years after Eric settled Tunugdliarfik he sent his son Leif to Norway where the King forced him to convert to Christianity, under threat of death for his entire crew.

 After getting sailing directions from Bjani, Leif set sail for the New World, stopping first just North of St Johns, in an area called flat rock. He then stayed for a short while before departing for Nova Scotia.

They also stayed in Nova Scotia briefly before setting sail for Martha’s Vineyard, where they built shelters and wintered over, collecting grapes and other vegetation. The Year was 1003.

 Over the next several years several trips were made to the southern New England area and as far south as Long Island. Trading began and many items that were indigenous to North America started showing up in Greenland and Norway.

 Skins of marmot, otter, beaver, wolverine, lynx, sable, black bear, anthracite coal, trees for lumber from Nova Scotia were sent to Greenland for building.