Long before Barbados had highways, roundabouts, or parish roads, the island’s gullies formed a vast natural network that connected people, settlements, water sources, and coastlines.

These deep limestone corridors shaped how people survived, travelled, traded, hid, and communicated across the island for centuries.

Join the Barbados National Trust on a guided educational hike exploring the history, geology, and human stories hidden within Barbados’ gully systems.

Discover how gullies were formed over thousands of years through erosion and rainfall, why Barbados developed such an extensive gully network, and how these natural pathways became critical arteries of movement long before modern infrastructure existed.

This immersive hike explores how Barbados’ earliest peoples — including Amerindians, Puritans, Quakers, and Africans — used gullies as transportation corridors, water channels, borders, shelter, hiding places, and survival routes.

Participants will learn how gullies:

• Served as the island’s first transportation system
• Connected settlements before roads existed
• Influenced where communities developed
• Provided access to water and resources
• Became critical environmental and cultural features of Barbados