Visiting JORVIK Viking Centre in a Wheelchair

I wrote about staying at South Newlands Farm near York recently and one of the places I just had to visit while in the area was JORVIK. It is a location that I have memories of visiting as a child and actually Ash and I went to visit in the summer of 2015.

Sadly during the floods around Christmas 2015, they were badly affected by floodwater and had to close to renovate until Spring 2017. As such there had been quite a change between this visit and my last.

What is JORVIK?

While I realise a lot of you will probably know of JORVIK, and perhaps visited, some people may not have. So just in case, what is JORVIK?

JORVIK takes you back to 975 AD,  in the times of the Vikings. Inside the centre, which is located in the Coppergate Center in York. Once inside you head downwards through time until you are greeted by a Viking who will tell you about the recreation of the Coppergate Dig which is viewable below your feet (don’t worry you can walk around it if stepping on it isn’t your thing).

Next, you head onto the ride – the part of JORVIKperhaps most affected by the flooding. Thankfully all the artefacts were saved, but the ride recreation was in lower parts completely underwater. The ride takes you through a reaction of what life may have been like. You can take in the sights, sounds and smells of Viking York which have been carefully created in some cases utilising archaeological finds to share building shapes and even the face of a Viking.

After the ride, you are able to continue through JORVIK at your own pace. In each area a Viking is on hand to answer your questions while you take in amazing Viking artefacts.

Visting JORVIK in a Wheelchair

While pre-booking if you are visiting in a chair is a must for JORVIK, I would suggest pre-booking to anyone. We went on a Monday in June and the queue for those who hadn’t booked was around an hour long. Their health and safety procedures mean they can’t have more than one wheelchair user in at a time, I personally booked by contacting the access customer service and then paid on arrival.

I also used my own wheelchair, however, they also have access to a folding wheelchair as well as a range of other items including; sensory packs, booster seats, chairs, handheld lanterns and ear defenders for those who need them. They run a “red, yellow, green” traffic light sticker system which allows the Vikings to know if they should approach you or not.

Inside The Experience

A small lift makes the downstairs start of JORVIK accessible to all. The lift is button operated and sized at around: width – 930mm, length – 1480mm, weight limit – 400 kg and has a person limit of two people. At the bottom of the lift visitors get the chance to view the recreation of the Coppergate excavation while Vikings will be happy to talk you through what you are seeing.

Accessing the Ride Pod

The next part of the experience is the ride. To access this you have to go down quite a tight corridor, so instead wheelchair users are taken via a back route, to join the ride. They have one wheelchair-accessible pod for the ride. This features a normal back seat for up to three people, while the front can see a wheelchair clipped in. The wheelchair sizing for this space is; width – 760mm and length – 880mm. If your wheelchair doesn’t fit in this space the alternatives are; transferring to the loan chair to go on the ride or transferring into a normal pod.

Personally, as an ambulatory wheelchair user, I transferred into a normal pod, while my wheelchair was left with the Vikings who are there to help people on and off the ride. As such I felt like it was in safe hands and didn’t worry about it at all during this phase of the experience.

After the ride, you exit the pod in the same location you got on it and can carry on through the exhibit. This part includes some incredible artefacts and Vikings are on hand to help answer any questions. You can even get a coin struck in a similar way it would have been done, as a souvenir.

There is a gift shop at JORVIK, which would sadly be hard to access in a chair. However, I am sure if you wanted anything staff would be happy to help.

Overall Thoughts

For a long time, I refused to use a chair, cutting me off from a lot of the world. I also have come up with so many places that aren’t wheelchair friendly, or that claim to be but only allow you to access a small portion of what they offer. So I was thrilled to find JORVIK so accessible and so ready to help.

At JORVIK, I really felt like every other guest, I was able to access all parts of the experience and was openly welcomed. I actually felt uplifted and as though there are places open to me once again now I am using a chair after leaving Jorvik and it makes me excited to perhaps visit other places as well.

If you are thinking of going to the JORVIK Viking Centre, I really suggest booking in and going to experience it yourself. If you have any accessibility questions they have an extensive access guide on their website and the team is always happy to answer questions.

What do you think of the sound of JORVIK, have you ever been?

A huge thank you to JORVIK for allowing me to use the images included in this post, all copyright remains with them.

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