Vikings Invade Chester Again

Viking Tours return to Chester this summer with a bigger team of guides.

Launched last year, the tours explore everything about the Age of the Vikings who settled in the city over 1000 years ago and were frequently at odds with their Anglo-Saxon neighbours!

Viking Chester features costumed guides dressed as a formidable fighter or a Shield Maiden complete with replica swords and shields and many other items.

They leave from the Town Hall Visitor Information Centre and show people around locations associated with the invaders from across the North Sea.

Everyone taking part in the tour receives a replica Viking coin.

The guided walk is run by The Guild of Ghost Hunters Ltd, who run the highly popular Chester Ghost Tours launched 40 years ago.

Its director, Gerald Tattum says:

‘We are delighted to be bringing back this exciting tour with a much bigger team of guides that includes an historian, an archaeologist, experienced guides and re-enactors.

We have all worked hard to ensure the content is accurate as well as entertaining, providing an authentic historical experience’.

He added:

‘The Vikings are an integral part of the city’s history, and their fascinating past is well worth exploring. They were in Britain for over 350 years and ended up ruling England.

We have discovered many fascinating aspects of their culture from flying cats, buried treasure and ‘zombies’ to cursed graves, ‘wolf warriors’ and naughty deity Loki! And no, the Vikings did not wear horned helmets as far as we know!

We also provide group tours, which can be combined with educational workshops for schools in partnership with St John’s Church by the Amphitheatre; the building features some Viking artefacts.

There are still many unanswered questions about the Vikings in Chester. It’s a mystery why no Viking graves have been found here yet. Some dead Viking leaders were traditionally buried in longships on land along with their treasures’.

Tickets for the tours are bookable at Chester Visitor Information Centre at the Town Hall:

01244 405340

and at: 

www.vikingchester.com.

Tours depart at 11.15am and 3.15pm Saturdays, June - October.

Picture: A Viking Tour Guide outside the Visitor Information Centre at the Town Hall