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Ancient Turf Houses and the Canadian Connection

Our visit to the Glaumbaer farmstead, northern Iceland, in Spring, 2022. This farmstead dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries, consisting of a complex of rooms joined by a central hall. The buildings are made of sod and driftwood. They represent a northern method of building construction that goes back to the 9th century when the Vikings first settled in Iceland. And even earlier among other northern cultures in other countries.

I have a certain affinity for architecture. It talks of the history and origins of a people. While on vacation in Iceland this spring we visited the Glaumbær turf house in Skagafjörður, northwestern Iceland. What surprised me was there was a possible Canadian connection.

Turf in Antiquity

Humans built turf buildings for centuries. In Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Faeroe Islands, Greenland, other parts of Northern Europe (such as the Netherlands), northern Canada and on the Great Plains in western Canada and the USA. The earliest known turf houses in Scotland date back to 4,000 B.C. Turf buildings were built at Dun Nosebridge (an Iron Age fort on Islay), at Roman forts along the Antonine Wall, at Culloden Moor and at St. Kilda.

The turf house was spread across northern Europe. Left: Irish turf house (c.1905) northern Ireland.1 Right: Scottish turf house, at Ness, Isle of Lewis, in the late 1940s.2
Left: A turf house in Qassiarsuk, Greenland.3 Right: Beret Hagebak’s turf house, east of Madison, Minnesota, in Lac qui Parle County, ca. 1896.4

Tenth Century Turf House Beneath Reykjavik, Iceland

Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital city, was one of the first areas settled by the Norse. They likely chose it for its resources but also because of its good natural harbour.

When visiting I noticed a glass portal on the sidewalk outside our hotel. When I peered down, people were walking around a display two metres below me. Archaeologists had uncovered the remains of a turf longhouse dating back to approximately 1,000 A.D.

Although built nearly a thousand years earlier than the Glaumbær turf house, the two dwellings were similar in construction. The turf was usually the main material used to construct the building walls but also to cover the timber framed roof. Stones were used with or without the turf for the walls. Even slate was used as an underlay for the roof.

This completely excavated turf house lies under the streets of today’s Reykjavik. Having thick turf walls, wooden framework, and stones for flooring and the hearth, its construction is similar to the Glaumbaer farmstead. An entire museum was built around it two metres beneath Reykjavik’s streets. The bottom right photograph shows what the building once looked like facing Reykjavik’s harbor.

But what changed, since the Norse built the first turf houses in Iceland, was the layout of the two structures. Instead of being essentially one long enclosure or longhouse, where multiple tasks were performed, later farmsteads were comprised of separate rooms, each with a specific purpose, joined by a hallway.

The layout of the turf house changed in Iceland and elsewhere over the centuries. The Reykjavik longhouse on the left was mostly one large room where all household activities took place and where extended families lived together. By the 18th century the farmsteads were divided up into smaller buildings each with a special function. The entire complex was often joined together by a common hall or corridor.5

Glaumbær Farmstead

This historic farmstead, and the people who lived here, have a possible Canadian connection. Snorri Þorfinnsson and his parents lived in another area below this farmstead in the 11th century. Snorri was the son of Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir, who was the widow of Þorsteinn, who was Erik the Red’s son and the brother of Leif the Lucky, who discovered America. If the Icelandic Sagas are correct, then Snorri was the first European born in the Americas and possibly at L’Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland.

The building turf walls are over a metre thick providing good insulation during the winter months. Our Icelandic guide could not explain the reason for the curious oblique sod stacking method (far right). Poles down the center corridor supported the roof superstructure (center).

People lived in this farmstead until 1947 when it was turned over to the National Museum of Iceland. Others like it still exist scattered throughout Iceland and other northern countries, including Canada.

The Glaumbær turf house was divided into sixteen rooms, each one having a specific function: storage (left); kitchen (center); and, bedroom (right). A family’s wealth was often measured in the number of rooms a farmstead contained. The Glaumbaer house contained three guest rooms.
When reading the Icelandic Sagas, entertaining and housing guests, often for the whole winter, was not uncommon for wealthy landowners.

While the Icelandic economy was based primarily on fishing, sheep and cattle (north) were also very important. Many of the rooms and artifacts represent the farming industry and the importance of wool in Icelandic culture.

Iceland is renowned for its wool industry, an important component of its culture for centuries. In the spring, when the new lambs are born (usually two to an ewe), sheep outnumber the Icelandic population of approximately 375,000.

L’Anse aux Meadows Viking Turf Houses

Icelanders built turf houses, similar to the Reykjavik longhouse, on the northern tip of Newfoundland around 1,000 A.D. Some of those families may have originated from northern Iceland and at an earlier Glaumbær Farmstead.

Leif Eriksson, or ‘Leif the Lucky’, born in Iceland is credited for finding the New World, around 1,000 A.D. There is a possibility, although not verified by archaeological evidence, that the Vikings made earlier voyages before him. Regardless of which version is correct, the Vikings did settle at L’Anse aux Meadows around that time and built their turf buildings.
This map on the left shows the archaeological remains present at L’anse aux Meadows. The longhouse, divided into several rooms, resembled other Viking longhouses built around the same time, in northern Europe, Greenland and Iceland. 6
These reconstructed buildings, based on the archaeological evidence, are similar to the early Icelandic and Greenland longhouses. If they are contemporaneous to one another, then at least three extended family units lived along the northern shores of the province. 7

Inuit Turf Dwellings

Long before the Vikings arrived in Newfoundland, the Inuit had already occupied the northern Arctic. The archaeological evidence indicates that they first settled the Arctic around 3,950 B. C. And some of that archaeological evidence suggests that they and other Inuit in Labrador and Greenland used turf to build their shelters.

The Dorset8 culture oval-shaped winter house exhibit in the Canadian Museum of History excavated on Ellesmere Island was built in the following manner: “The foundation was dug ten to fifty centimetres deep into dry soil or gravel, to provide insulation and protection from the wind. The walls were built using the material dug from the house floor, supplemented by boulders and insulating blocks of turf.” 9

Thule 10 people built perhaps the most impressive winter dwellings. According to Robert Park, an arctic archaeologist, the Thule winter house superstructure was built of whalebone, “…especially mandibles (jawbones) and ribs. The rafters would have been covered with skins and then with turf and rocks, forming a thick insulating roof.” 11

Left: Partially reconstructed Thule house, Naalakkersuisut, Greenland 12. Center: Excavation of Thule House by Robert W. Park 11. Right: Reconstruction illustration of floor plan and profile of Thule winter House 13

My wife, Gabriella Prager, an Arctic archaeologist, took photos of some recent Inuit semi-subterranean sod houses near Clyde River, Baffin Island.

Often these structures had rock-lined semi-subterranean entrances with a rock base. This one is thought to be of Thule origin.
This structure is more recent, being built within the last one-hundred years and was also likely at partially sod-covered.

‘Soddies’ on the Canadian Prairies

Early settlers from northern European countries built sod or turf houses on the North American prairies. They built with sod because they had some knowledge of this type of construction (which Scandinavian and northern European immigrants possessed). And sod of sufficient quality existed on the Canadian prairies to build them. Those reasons, coupled with often initially having little lumber to build with, resulted in the prairie turf house, or ‘soddie’, as it was lovingly named.

Left: Sod House, Hamiota, Manitoba, Canada, 1880s.14 Right: Sod House, Elk Point, Alberta, Canada.15 Many of these dwellings were temporary until there was sufficient lumber to build a wooden structure. However, in terms of insulation efficiency, the ‘soddie’ with its thick walls would have been superior as a winter abode.
The James Addison sod house, near Kindersley, Saskatchewan, Canada. Perhaps one of the best preserved original sod houses in western Canada. Top left photograph of the house in 1929. Bottom right photograph of the house, clad in vinyl today. Addison built his house to last. Instead of building straight walls, his walls were sloped, four feet at the base, tapering to three feet at the top. By overlapping his sod ‘bricks’ and tapering the walls, his ‘soddie’ didn’t collapse as so many others did. For the complete story on the James Addison sod house, go to this site.16

When working for the Government of Alberta, I visited this sod house in east-central Alberta. A story I have already posted on elsewhere but worth repeating here.17 At the time this still standing soddie was being considered for National Historic designation (not sure if it ever was designated) since it’s such a rare sight in the 21st century.

This wood framed house, with sod infill for walls, was built in east-central Alberta. Perhaps one of the most unique houses I have ever seen. According to Government of Alberta files: 1907 – Homestead filed and smaller sod house built; 1910 – House built; 1911 – Exterior plastered with lime and sand, and interior finished with Beaverboard; 1950 – last occupied. (Photographs and information Courtesy of Historic Sites Service, Government of Alberta, Canada)
A close-up view of the sod infill used to fashion the walls of this house. The sod was then covered with plaster and beaverboard. Unfortunately, this exposed part of the wall now makes for a great nesting area for barn swallows. As with straw bale wall construction, the trick here is to completely seal the wall to prevent rodents or other critters from getting in. (Photographs and information Courtesy of Historic Sites Service, Government of Alberta, Canada)

Canada derives its architecture from numerous ethnic groups. What people choose for building material, construction method, and layout was often determined by a combination of things: 1) available materials and environment; 2) one’s skill and ethnic background; and, 3) occasionally one’s ingenuity in adding to traditional designs and construction methods to produce something just slightly different.

The antiquity of the turf or sod house is considerable, found on several continents, over countless millennia, and a home for many cultures. I’ll leave the last words about human architecture to American folklorist, Henry Glassie, when talking about Virginia folk housing:

“Any artifact that can be provided with associations in space and time, either by being accompanied by a document or better – as with gravestones or buildings – by being set into the land, is a valuable source of a great quantity of information.”18

Footnotes:
  1. https://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=images+of+historic+Irish+turf+houses&fr=yhs-trp-001&type=Y143_F163_201897_102620&hspart=trp&hsimp=yhs-001&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FIan_Kuijt%2Fpublication%2F273640760%2Ffigure%2Fdownload%2Ffig5%2FAS%3A613912529621031%401523379561703%2FPhotograph-of-sod-house-Co-Mayo-1905-National-Museums-Northern-Ireland.png#id=25&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FIan_Kuijt%2Fpublication%2F273640760%2Ffigure%2Fdownload%2Ffig5%2FAS%3A613912529621031%401523379561703%2FPhotograph-of-sod-house-Co-Mayo-1905-National-Museums-Northern-Ireland.png&action=click[↩]
  2. https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/scotlands-turf-houses-disappeared-landscape-256690[↩]
  3. Courtesy: https://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=images+of+greenland+historic+turf+houses&fr=yhs-trp-001&type=Y143_F163_201897_102620&hspart=trp&hsimp=yhs-001&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Flive.staticflickr.com%2F8644%2F15910983639_229f97e33a_b.jpg#id=5&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Flive.staticflickr.com%2F8644%2F15910983639_229f97e33a_b.jpg&action=click.[↩]
  4. Photograph by Hugh J. Chalmers. https://www.mnopedia.org/multimedia/sod-house[↩]
  5. images from the Glaumbær Farmstead brochure, National Museum of Iceland[↩]
  6. Images courtesy of: https://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrWp2fLbsRiPS8AMQ0XFwx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNncTEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Nj?p=plan+of+longhouse+at+L%26%2339%3BAnse+aux+meadows%2C+newfoundland&type=Y143_F163_201897_102620&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=trp&ei=UTF-8&fr=yhs-trp-001#id=24&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hurstwic.org%2Fhistory%2Farticles%2Fdaily_living%2Fpix%2Fhouse_floor_plans.gif&action=click[↩]
  7. Images courtesy of: https://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Images+of+LAnse+meadows&fr=yhs-trp-001&type=Y143_F163_201897_102620&hspart=trp&hsimp=yhs-001&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fexoviajes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F01%2FGettyImages-177885248-5952e6ea5f9b584bfe6f750e-e7e6adcb00aa4c0994660a15864674d0.jpg#id=23&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftce-live2.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia%2Fmedia%2Fef56b649-2750-47b7-8402-422d71ee395e.jpg&action=click[↩]
  8. Dorset Arctic Indigenous people existed approximately between 800 BC to AD 1500[↩]
  9. https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/archeo/paleoesq/peh01eng.html[↩]
  10. Thule Indigenous arctic people occupied northern Canada and Greenland between approximately 200 BC to 1600 AD[↩]
  11. http://anthropology.uwaterloo.ca/ArcticArchStuff/thule_fig_housediagram.html[↩][↩]
  12. https://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=images+of+thule+houses&fr=yhs-trp-001&type=Y143_F163_201897_102620&hspart=trp&hsimp=yhs-001&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fc7.alamy.com%2Fcomp%2FDFNBNM%2Fhistoric-inuit-house-from-the-thule-culture-made-out-of-whale-bones-DFNBNM.jpg#id=70&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2Fa3%2F59%2F9e%2Fa3599e554ba71d102f90f6773458bb2f.jpg&action=click[↩]
  13. from Robert W. Park. http://anthropology.uwaterloo.ca/ArcticArchStuff/thule_fig_housediagram.html[↩]
  14. https://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrUixM6q8RiiiEAhgYXFwx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNncTEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Nj?p=images+of+the+Canadian+prairie+soddie+house&type=Y143_F163_201897_102620&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=trp&ei=UTF-8&fr=yhs-trp-001#id=9&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F75%2Ff3%2Fcb%2F75f3cbc26f44e3c88924a7622e8bf077.jpg&action=click[↩]
  15. https://legionmagazine.com/en/2010/04/the-last-of-the-soddies/[↩]
  16. https://legionmagazine.com/en/2010/04/the-last-of-the-soddies/[↩]
  17. https://canehdianstories.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=post[↩]
  18. 1975. Folk Housing in Virginia. Knoxville. University of Tennessee Press.[↩]