Around the year 1000 AD, the medieval Norsemen (Vikings) established the first European settlement, on the north coast of newfoundland, but they only stayed for a short period. In the late 9th century, a gradual migration across the North Atlantic began. Were there Vikings in Canada? It was exactly 1,000 years ago. It has long been known that the Vikings were the first Europeans to make the long journey to the Americas, arriving in what is now Canada sometime in the late 1st millennium. How long did the Vikings stay in Canada? Norse settlement on the North American island of Greenland lasted almost 500 years. L’Anse aux Meadows, the only…