Most Vikings, especially the ones who settled in the north of Britain, lived by farming. The remains of some Viking farms have been found, giving us clues to what these farms would have looked like 1000 years ago.

The farms would have been made up of several buildings with a low stone wall around them. The biggest building would probably have been the farmhouse, and a whole family would live here. The walls would have been up to 3m thick, made of boulders, chunks of rock and soil. The farms were often built on high land, and the thick walls would have helped to keep the stormy winter weather out and keep the Viking family warm. The floor of the farmhouse would have been made of earth, and an open fire would have been burnt on it. The Vikings would cook their food on the fire, and it would also keep them warm and provide light. This was important as the farmhouse wouldn't have any windows.
The roof would have been thatched, made of straw bundled together. This would have let smoke from the fire out, but would have been steep enough to let the rain run off it and stop it coming inside.

The other buildings on the farm would have been smaller, but also essential to everyday life. One would have had very hot fire in it, and would have been used as a forge - the place where a smith worked to make tools from iron. Another would have contained an oven for baking bread or a kiln for making pottery. You can see that the Vikings made nearly all the things they needed - they would even have spun their own cloth in the main farmhouse. Other small buildings on the farm would have been used to keep sheep in during the winter when the weather was cold. Sheep were very important to the Vikings, providing them with milk to drink, meat to eat and wool to make into cloth and clothes.