Barbados Things To Do

Barbados has a number of sites of historical, architectural and natural interest and it is these that make Barbados special and unique! Most people know of the Seven Wonders of the World..... here is your chance to discover the 'Seven Wonders of Barbados'!
Explore The Seven Wonders of Barbados:

'Harrison's Cave'
'The Baobab Tree'
'Historic Jacobean Mansions'
'Morgan Lewis Mill'
'Famous Jewish Synagogue'
'Cannon Galore'
'Grapefruit Tree' (Citrus Paradise)

One of the Barbaos Tourism Encyclopedia's 'Seven Wonders of Barbados' is this spectacular cave which is one of our island's most famous attractions.

History of Harrison's Cave
Although historical references were made to Harrison's Cave from as early as the eighteenth century, no serious exploration of the cave was done until 1970, when speleologist, Ole Sorensen, was commissioned by the Barbados National Trust to make a survey and map the cave. Sorensen immediately recognised the potential of the cave and recommended that it be landscaped and developed. Four years later, work on the cave began, drawing on scientific, artistic, technological and geological resources. The work involved digging tunnels, improving lighting and diverting of underground streams.

Harrison's Cave Today
A unique phenomenon of nature, Harrison's Cave is an amazing gallery of stalactites hanging from the roof of the cave, and stalagmites that emerge from the ground, with streams of crystal-clear running water that drop from breathtaking waterfalls to form deep emerald pools. The stalactites and stalagmites were formed over thousands of years and in some places the stalactites have reached down to the stalagmites and a spectacular pillar has been formed.

Visitors are driven in electrically operated trams down through the extensive system of caves and at the lowest level point in the cave, visitors are invited to leave the tram and walk alongside a spectaular waterfall which plunges into a deep pool below .... this is truly an 'awesome wonder!'

Excellent tour guides give all the historical information on this cave along the way.

The attractive Visitor's Centre, which was designed to fit in with the natural limestone bedrock, provides a refreshment area and handicraft shops, along with an exhibit of Amerindian artifacts that have been excavated from various sites around the island.

Harrison's Cave is open every day of the week. The first tour starts at 9:00 am and the last tour is at 4:00 pm.
Most tour operators offer tours that include a stop at Harrison's Cave, one of the most popular attractions in Barbados.

Take a tour to discover Harrison's Cave and other beautiful locations in Barbados.
Or get married in Harrison's Cave!

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Coral Caves and Underground Lakes of Barbados
Barbados is a fabric of soils and flora, on top of sandstone rock and coral pushed out of the sea by ancient volcanic action. The land is hilly and rocky with a vast underground system of rivers, caves and lakes that supply clear, delicious drinking water.

The coral rocks that contain the underground water systems, are covered with a thin film of top soil measuring less than a foot on average and hardly more than a few feet at the deepest point. It is a delicate and critical balance that has supported the great sugar plantations of the past and continues to sustain a diversifying base of agricultural production.

'The Baobab Tree'
'Out of little seeds, great trees can grow!'

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It was said that the baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) was brought to Barbados around 1738 from Guinea in Africa. It is also known as the 'Monkey-bread tree'.

Two magnificent trees with possibly the widest tree-trunks to be found in the Caribbean, grow in Barbados! The largest can be seen in our Queen's Park in Bridgetown. To give an example of the size of this tree of great distinction, it takes 15 adults joining with outstretched arms to cover its circumference.

In July 1997, on a wildlife programme on BBC2, it was said, that there have been seven different types of Boabab trees discovered growing in Madagascar.

These two Baobab trees hold a well deserved place in the BTE's 'Seven Wonders of Barbados'

The other grand specimen can be found on the Warren's Road in St.Michael, where the inscription on the wooden plaque reads:

'Boabab Tree (Adansonia digitata)
One of the two mature trees in Barbados. This remarkable
tree of girth 44.5 ft (13.6m) is believed to have
been brought from Guinea, Africa around 1738
making it over 250 years old. Its jug-shaped
trunk is ideally suited for storing water,
an ideal adaption in the dry savannah
regions of its native Africa.

Another larger Baobab tree of girth 51.5 ft (18.5m)
is located in Queen's Park, Bridgetown.

The Barbados National Trust

Sign donated as a community service by
Paul Foster Travel'

Barbados is the home of two of the three remaining 'Jacobean Mansions' left in the Western hemisphere

St.Nicholas Abbey

St.Nicholas Abbey, located in the parish of St.Peter, was built in 1660 and is one of only three genuine Jacobean mansions in the Western Hemisphere. Barbados is home to two of these mansions ... St.Nicholas Abbey and Drax Hall.

Distinguishing features of this magnificent, well-preserved mansion are: curved Dutch gables, chimney stacks and coral stone finials, a Chinese Chippendale staircase and fine antiques and china. A rare 1930s film of sugar plantation life can also be viewed.

St.Nicholas Abbey is not without its tale of tragedy! The house appears to have been built by Colonel Benjamin Berringer. His neighbour, friend and business partner was John (later Sir John) Yeamans. When Yeamans began to pay attention to Mrs. Berringer, a feud erupted between Yeamans and Colonel Berringer, culminating in a duel in which Berringer was killed. Soon afterwards, Sir John married Mrs. Berringer and claimed the Abbey. A court ruling later returned the property to Berringer's children and the property was named after Berringer's grand-daughter who married George Nicholas.
Meanwhile, Sir John and Berringer's widow left Barbados in 1669 and helped found the colony that is South Carolina, USA, with Sir John eventually becoming Governor of that settlement in 1672. When he died two years later, his widow married again ... for the third time!

Drax Hall

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No one knows for sure, but it is generally believed that Drax Hall was built by the brothers William and James Drax in the 1650's. The brothers built Drax Hall as one of the earliest and biggest sugar properties in Barbados. They were a wealthy and well connected family that had a special love for Barbados. There were others like them, for Barbados prospered with sugar and its plantation owners held considerable influence at home and abroad.

It is classic Jacobean architecture, with steep gable roofs, corner finials, casement gable windows and a Jacobean staircase with its carved hall archway of mastic wood.

St. Nicholas Abbey in St. Peter and Drax Hall in St. George, two of the oldest buildings in Barbados, both built in the 1650's, stand as proud examples of the Jacobean tradition. Drax Hall is the oldest surviving Jacobean mansion in the Western Hemisphere. Only three of these mansions exit in the Western World, and it is Barbados' good fortune to have two of these treasures. The only other remaining structure being Bacon's castle in Virginia, U.S.A.

'Morgan Lewis Mill'
This is our only intact sugar mill in Barbados and
is the fourth of BTE's 'Seven Wonders of Barbados'!

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Location: St.Andrew

History:
Morgan Lewis is one of the only two intact and restored sugar mills in the Caribbean. The other is at Betty's Hope Estate on one of our sister islands, Antigua.

Maintained by the Barbados National Trust, the mill includes an exhibit of the equipment used to produce sugar at the time when the industry was run by windpower generated from mills such as this one.

Architectural Features:
Although the old plantation house has seen better days it is still worth a visit! The rubble walls are comprised of boulders held together with a mixture of egg-white and coral dust (there was no cement when this plantation house was built!).

'Famous Jewish Synagogue'
One of the Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia's 'Seven Wonders Of Barbados'

There is currently one synagogue situated in Bridgetown. Built in the 17th century (1654) it was destroyed by hurricane in 1831, was rebuilt, fell into disrepair and was sold in 1929.

In 1983, it was bought back by the Jewish community and was restored to its present state with its beautiful Gothic arches, and is now a Barbados National Trust protected building and an active synagogue.

About 300 Jewish people of Recife, Brazil, persecuted by the Dutch, settled in Barbados in the 1660's. Skilled in the sugar industry, they quickly introduced the crop and passed on their skills in cultivation and production to the Barbados land owners.

With their help Barbados went on to become one of the world's major sugar producers

Barbados : 'Cannon Galore'
One of the Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia's 'Seven Wonders Of Barbados'

© Michael Whittaker
General Manager, Silver Sands Resort

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The Caribbean is still full of secrets. One recently revealed is that Barbados has the world's rarest collection of 17th century English iron cannon.

Not too long ago it was decided to create a National Ordnance Collection of all the old guns on the island and to date more than 400 have been unearthed.

'The island is littered with old cannon', said Major Michael Hartland, who is the driving force behind this collection's acquisition. 'We have found them in gardens, cellars, on beaches, embedded in the sides of buildings and buried under fortifications', he informed me as I sat in his roomy office which is located in the historic Main Guard House which sits in the Garrison Savannah. It's an elegant Georgian building (Circa 1802) with a graceful clocktower and is now the headquarters of the Garrison Committee of which Hartland is the secretary.
He went on to tell me that the reason there were so many guns on the island was that during the 17th & 18th centuries Barbados was an important military base which the British used to protect their interests in the southern Caribbean.

When a nucleus of cannon had been collected, Charles Trollope, an English apple farmer (who also happens to be a world authority on ordnance), was invited to come to Barbados and catalogue the collection. He arrived armed with copies of the Royal Armory archives now stored in the Tower of London. The British, like the Spanish with their bullion, kept meticulous records of all cannon shipped to and from the West Indies. To everyone's surprise, a treasure trove of ordnance was revealed. More than half the cannon were cast in the 17th century. The oldest cannon found was cast in 1620 and the youngest, dated 1870 is one of the rarest: called the Victoria Gun (in photo) is the first rifled muzzle loader made in England. Not all the cannon found were English, with Dutch, Spanish and Swedish cannon coming to light.

'Let me show you the gem of the collection', said Hartland leading me out onto the broad verandah which surrounds the Guard House. Here covered with a green tarpaulin was yet another gun. As I helped him unwrap it he told me it was the rarest cannon of its kind ... a Commonwealth Cannon. Only one other is known to exist and it can be found in the Tower of London. What makes it so rare? Following the death of Oliver Cromwell, King Charles II instructed that all cannon with Cromwell's Coat of Arms embellished on them be struck off so that all official traces of Cromwell's rule (he had executed Charles II's father) would be removed. It is a cannon of extreme historical importance.

Twenty-six of the most important pieces in the collection are mounted in front of the Main Guard House and make a fine photographic display. For further information on the National Ordnance Collection of Barbados, contact:

Major Michael Hartland,
The Main Guard House,
The Garrison,
St. Michael., Barbados.

Tel : (246) 426-8982
Fax : (246) 429-6663

'Grapefruit Tree'
(Citrus Paradise)

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There is an old Barbadian legend telling us that the 'Grapefruit' was first developed in Barbados, in the beautiful Welchman Hall Gully and was first recorded in the eighteenth century. It's parents were Shaddock and Sweet Orange, immigrants from across the Asian Sea. A natural cross-pollination was produced between Shaddock and Sweet Orange. As a result, the 'Forbidden Fruit' (as it was named many moons ago) was born for the first time! The name was changed to 'Grapefruit' because it grows in large 'grape-like clusters'. This original Barbadian fruit has now become a world wide favourite. The BTE is proud to have the 'grapefruit' as one of the Seven Wonders of Barbados!

It is delicious when cut in half, segmented and sprinkled with Angostura Bitters, (made in a neighbouring island, Trinidad).

Things to Do in Barbados

Visiting Barbados?

Visiting Barbados?