Barnack: Nature, Trails and History

Barnack combines rare limestone grassland with a local history encompassing archaeological finds, stone quarrying and church construction. Nature and walking sit alongside architectural and historical themes here. If you are planning a trip to Barnack, you can decide whether to focus on the landscape, the historic village centre or both.

Nature and Trails in Barnack

Barnack Hills and Holes NNR is designated as a National Nature Reserve for its rare limestone grassland. The landscape is a clear point of reference for anyone exploring Barnack through its natural features. The Barnack and Southorpe walk is a circular walk that takes in Barnack Hills and Holes and the surrounding areas. There is a short and a long option. This gives you two options to choose from for this circular walk.

The public footpath Barnack No. 2 offers a different route: it crosses the southern boundary of the reserve and connects Barnack with Southorpe. While the Barnack and Southorpe walk is expressly described as a circular walk with a short and a long option, Barnack No. 2 is defined by its route across the reserve’s southern boundary and its connection between the two villages. You can compare the routes by their stated features: one offers a circular route and two options, while the other connects Barnack and Southorpe.

Church and Village History

Barnack’s conservation area includes the village’s historic centre. This means the centre itself is part of the village’s history, not just the setting for individual buildings. A striking architectural feature is St John the Baptist in Barnack, whose Saxon tower displays an early medieval building style.

Features of the tower include long-and-short work, pilaster strips and windows with triangular heads. Long-and-short work describes the stone courses; the pilaster strips divide the wall surfaces, while the triangular heads are another distinctive feature of the windows. The tower’s spire dates from around 1200. The building style refers to the tower, while the approximate date of around 1200 refers to the spire. This distinction makes the church’s different architectural details clear without combining them into a single date.

Archaeology and Barnack Rag

The history of local limestone is also part of Barnack’s character. Barnack Rag was first quarried by the Romans. Stone from Barnack was also used to build Peterborough Cathedral. The name of the stone is therefore associated both with its quarrying and with its use in a named building.

Another historical point of interest is the Barnack Burial, a significant find from the Early Bronze Age. It represents a different period from the Roman quarrying of Barnack Rag. Together, the burial, the stone and the church architecture offer different ways to explore Barnack’s history: archaeological traces, the use of local limestone and specific features of a church building.

Discover more destinations: Peterborough, Ufford, Wansford, Northborough, Helpston

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