This eagerly awaited volume represents the final report on the investigations of the possible Viking longphort site of Woodstown in County Waterford, Ireland, discovered in 2003 during developer-funded excavations in the context of the construction of the N25 Waterford City bypass. The site consists of a later ninth- to tenth-century double D-shaped riverside enclosure with clear Scandinavian affinities. Representing one of the earliest ‘Viking’ settlements in Ireland, it was soon realised that this is a site of international importance. Consequently, in 2005 Woodstown was declared a national monument and the route of the N25 bypass was altered, creating further opportunity for a final phase of targeted, research-driven excavation and geophysical survey to establish the full extent and nature of the occupation.

The report is the product of collaboration between an impressive number of specialist contributors, resulting in a hefty yet surprisingly affordable volume that will undoubtedly become another standard reference work for specialists of the period. The details of the investigations along with the general historical background form the subject of the first four chapters of the volume. The results include the retrieval of over 6000 finds, including metal, ceramic, glass, amber and stone artefacts, some organic materials including animal bone and antler, and fragments of textile fused to metal artefacts, all described in great detail in Chapters 7–10. The majority of the finds came from the topsoil, with fewer than 800 objects retrieved from stratified contexts; their date range covers the prehistoric through to modern periods. Despite the unstratified nature of the assemblage—the result of disturbance caused by agricultural activity in the area and proximity to a railway line—the finds nevertheless provide an important insight into the nature and character of occupation. There is some evidence for industrial activity, including metal, stone and some glass working. Of particular note are the fragments of hack-silver, with parallels in Hiberno-Norse hoards of later ninth- to tenth-century date, and the large number of lead weights, indicative of a pre-monetary bullion economy as is to be expected in Ireland at this date. The only coins from the site fit this profile: investigations yielded no more than two Islamic dirham fragments and one fragment of a possible Anglo-Saxon penny. Interestingly, as Patrick Wallace concludes on the basis of a consideration of the weight standards, the weights and the hack-silver fragments from Woodstown represent the best body of evidence from Ireland to date for the use of these items in small-scale economic interactions.

The surviving structural features that can be attributed to the ninth or tenth centuries are difficult to interpret spatially. In addition to the two main enclosures, these features include mostly pits, postholes, stake-holes and beam slots, as well as a few hearths and various layers of redeposited material. Only one complete house plan was recognised, but this may have been due largely to the limited area of excavation, with less than 10 per cent of the internal area stripped in a series of 2m-wide trenches. Also of interest is the evidence for iron working in the southern part of the enclosure, including an iron-smelting furnace of a type that is more common in contemporary areas of Scandinavian settlement than in native Irish contexts (Chapter 6). Other evidence for craft-working activity with non-Irish associations is represented by the numerous finds of iron nails and roves typical of Scandinavian-style boats and possibly indicative of boat repair. The only burial from the site, situated near the north-eastern entrance to the enclosure, also suggests a ‘Scandinavian’ presence. Although the human bone was not preserved, the burial included a sword, an axe-head, a spearhead and a shield boss, as well as a ringed pin and some other small items. Both the sword and the spearhead, and possibly the shield boss, had been deliberately damaged prior to deposition. Although not all of the objects are diagnostically ‘Scandinavian’—for example, the shield boss and the ringed pin are likely of ‘Irish’ origin—the burial rites fit the overall signature of ‘Viking’ burials in Ireland (Chapter 5).

The Woodstown investigations have thus produced important results that shed light on the character and significance of relatively short-lived Viking settlements, contributing more broadly to a revival of interest in such sites. In this context, David Griffiths draws attention in the Preface to the ongoing work carried out by the Universities of York and Sheffield on the site of the historically attested Viking winter camp in Torksey, Lincolnshire (England), which ultimately grew to become a fairly prosperous tenth- to eleventh-century town. Similar to Woodstown, the majority of the evidence from Torksey consists of unstratified artefactual evidence, including a large quantity of Viking Age weights, although far greater numbers of silver coins were found as well. Obvious questions present themselves with regard to the comparison between sites such as Woodstown and Torksey, in addition to other well-known and less familiar sites. How similar was the undocumented site at Woodstown to historically attested Viking winter camps or their Irish equivalents, the longphuirt? Was Woodstown a longphort in the first place, or was it a more permanent settlement founded in the ninth century by Scandinavian traders that ultimately ‘failed’, an option that Maurice Hurley alludes to in the final discussion? How can we use different material culture signatures to shed light on the initial functions and subsequent developmental trajectories of individual settlements, as well as on the identities of their inhabitants? These and other questions can only be explored through comparative research. Nonetheless, as many of the contributors to the present volume point out, there is also further scope for more detailed analyses of the Woodstown material. Hence, although this book is the final report on fieldwork at the site, it is undoubtedly not the final word on Woodstown, but rather the starting point for much interesting and worthwhile future research.