Scarborough History : Stronghold of the Vikings 966 - 1066

The first Vikings saw little beaches, backed by green clad slopes over which Scarborough would spread one day. The seaward side had a great rock, less eroded then than now, and carrying the scanty vestiges of life. There were some Roman signal station remains still visible, that helped protect the Saxon shore. Only inland at Falsgrave did rising smoke and the curving ridges and furrows of ploughland betray the presence of Anglican farmers. Scarborough was not yet born. The Vikings began to settle, as well as raiding in the latter half of the ninth century. They dominated Scalby, Newby, Throxenby and Falsgrave and as far as Stainton, Cloughton and Burniston. Falsgrave become the capital manor. The place were Scarborough would grow remained an unpromising stretch of common pasture.

Two Icelandic Vikings, Thorgills Ogmundarson and his brother Kormak, began raiding around the coast of Britian in 966. These two founded the stronghold called 'Skarthaborg'. Skarthi's burg, took its name from a nickname of Thorgills - 'Skarthi' meaning hare-lip. His stronghold enjoyed some permanency as a fishing community and raider's base.

The next big landing was said to have been made in the tenth century by Knut and Harald a Danish force. A small chapel with chancel and nave was built on Castle Rock within the ruined tower of the signal station, possibly a beacon chapel, whose priests might act as coast-watchers and light-keepers