The queue to get into the Viking Centre snakes down the street, but we’re not bored because we’re watching a gigantic Viking. He’s guarding the museum with a spear. His ginger hair hangs in a plait down to his waist and it’s real (I know this because my son Callum just asked him); now he’s challenging Cal to get past his shield with a wooden sword. It’s all bringing York’s Viking past to life, and we haven’t even got through the door yet.

After forking out for a family ticket (€44), we descend one storey and step onto a glass floor. Below, there are the genuine remains of a thousand-year-old settlement, floor joists, the ashes of a fire, objects discarded by the locals. We hover over them until we reach the ‘time capsules’, programmed to take us back to the year 975AD.

There’s a lot of blond and ginger hair in family and we’ve been in North East of England for generations. I’ve always suspected that some ancient Viking blood runs through my veins. So when the ride lurches into darkness, I feel like I’m about to meet my forefathers… But first I have to deal with the stench of urine.

Yes, not content with dragging us back in time to see the sights of the old Coppergate Street (Street of the Cup Makers), the centre has thrown in the smells too. At first there’s only a faint whiff as if a cat got trapped in the exhibit for a couple of days, but the aroma intensifies to cesspit levels… then we catch a sweeter whiff of cooking meat. That’s quickly overwhelmed by the smoke of the blacksmith’s fire and quite possibly, a bit of ripe Viking armpit.

There are figures yabbering in Norse outside all the houses and shops. They are realistic enough to terrify my nervous three year old into tears, but for me, the jerky, animatronic movements, as they stir the pot or pretend to cut an apple, are rather amateurish. Still, it’s a great way to present a typical Viking settlement and my son talked about the Viking he saw grumbling on the loo for days. The face of one of the figures has been reconstructed from a skull found in the area and provides an eerie opportunity to look a real Viking in the face (my husband claims he does look like me – I hope he’s joking).

A great way to experience a way of living that has been influencing Britons for centuries

We exit the ride into a narrow corridor lined with exhibits. Unfortunately, someone is also lecturing a school group here and the resulting crush makes it difficult to see anything. That’s a shame because the displays are fascinating. The first show skeletons that were found in the local area. There’s detailed information on what the bones revealed about the common people – their diets, the illnesses they had, the loads they likely had to carry and the way they died. Somehow, it’s easier to relate to a skeleton when you know they had a bad back, flat feet and probably carried heavy baskets of fish for a living.

The museum does a great job of explaining who the Vikings really were. These raiders from Scandinavian got a toehold on the British Isles in 793, when they attacked the monastery on Lindisfarne. They came in search of treasure at first – which they found, especially in churches – before eventually settling here and creating a trade network that spanned from Istanbul to Dublin, Newfoundland, Greenland and the North Cape. Some of the artefacts found in York digs came from those routes.

We shuffle on, past the helmets of ancient warriors and ornate pieces of pottery until, out of nowhere, a ghosts appears, kneeling for a second to complete a job behind the glass exhibit case, before vanishing into the ether again. The kids have fun trying to spot more of them. Round the corner, we meet a man using a coin die to mint “silver” coins. He wields his hammer to make a couple for an awestruck Callum.

The final section has more skeletons, this time displaying battle wounds. The interpretation explains how the arms show defensive wounds, the legs show tactical cuts which would have knocked the soldiers down and the skulls or ribs show how the owner of these bones left this world for good.

Alongside, there are displays of the axes and swords that would have been used in battle to defeat the Vikings in 1066. They didn’t reign for long in Britain but they didn’t go down without a fight either – and their resurrection in Jorvik is a great way to experience a way of living that has been influencing Britons for centuries.