After hundreds of years, Norsemen have returned to the Cumbrian fells.

Some 50 years after the Battle of Hastings, the Norman invaders set their sights on further conquering Britain.

But they saw their plans scuppered by the combined efforts of native Britons and Norsemen who carried out a successful ambush.

The conflict - The Battle of Rannerdale - is something that relatively little is known about, but it is something that a group of re-enactors are hoping to draw more attention to as they continue to showcase Cumbria's rich Viking heritage.

Three re-enactors - Luke Moloney, Sean Miles and Catherine Roussel - headed out onto Rannerdale as part of a sponsored walk to raise money for the development of a longhouse at Moorforge - a viking site at Greengill, in Allerdale.

The site is the creation of blacksmith David Watson and Luke is a partner in the business, working as the 'viking on site'.

"David has already built the forge and a workshop and our plans are now to create a longhouse," Luke told the News & Star.

"Before we begin applying for grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and things like that, we thought we'd try to raise money ourselves.

"There isn't really anything like this in the area. You'd have to travel to York or go down south if you wanted to find out more about the vikings, or travel to Scandinavia."

Luke, who is a member of the Herlið Vikings - a re-enactment group based in west Cumbria - said it was a television series that sparked his interest in the viking period.

"I've always been interested in history and I watched Vikings on TV," he said.

"What actually got me interested was the historical inaccuracies in it. It was all a bit Hollywood - two of the characters actually lived about 200 years apart.

"My interest grew from there and the first re-enactment I went on was of the Battle of Hastings.

"It's just such an amazing feeling being one of around 1,000 warriors there who are all up against each other, but knowing you're not going to die as a result. The adrenaline rush is brilliant."

In 1930, local historian Nicholas Size published a book called The Secret Valley, which tells the story of how native Britons and Norsemen living in Rannerdale were able to see off an attack from the Romans.

However it is not a subject area that has gained a great deal of coverage.

"The Battle of Rannerdale is something that we definitely want to look at in more detail," Luke added.

"It's a little bit later than the era covered by what's happening at Moorforge because it was more towards the medieval area but it's interesting from a re-enacting point of view."

"In Cumbria there's such a rich Norse heritage. We talk a lot about the Romans but after they left, the culture and influence went with it. If you look around Cumbria, then there's a lot of evidence of the influence of Old Norse as a language.

"For example Grizedale means the valley of the boar and Corby means 'raven' in Old Norse, too.

"A lot of what we know is based on legend but more often than not, what has been written as legend is usually based on the truth. It's definitely a period that we should be looking at in more detail."

Moorforge is looking to raise £15,000 to complete the longhouse project.

Anyone that would like to make a donation can do so by visiting www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/moorforge