HOLDERNESS — Over history, barns have provided shelter and habitat for horses, cows and other farm animals, but as their agricultural use diminished, they became good homes for wildlife.

Later this month, the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center will host a special tour to explore three barns from the early 1800s, plus a carriage house, and how they provide important habitat for wildlife such as bats and barn swallows.

The self-guided tour will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on July 28. The event is hosted by the Science Center, in support of Kirkwood Gardens, and in cooperation with the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance and the Squam National Register Initiative.

On the tour, participants will learn about the history of the farm buildings and about the interesting things they sometimes shelter, according to center staff. Science Center staff will be present to talk about the wildlife that often depends upon barns.

The four very different buildings on the tour represent the early settler barn, the 20th century descendent, the gentleman’s farm, and the carriage house. All the sites are in Holderness and Center Harbor.

The barns include those at True Farm, Pinehurst Farm and Pemvale Farm, all in Holderness. The carriage house, now part of Hearthstone Bed and Breakfast in Center Harbor, still has many of its original features, such as a turntable for turning carriages around, a clock tower and three water tanks, according to Amanda Gillen, marketing manager at the center.

“Barns were used as agricultural centers, to store horses, hay, tractors,” Gillen said. “But a lot of these barns, as they aged, were used as storage and some wildlife adapted the barns for their own homes.”

Gillen said many barns have dirt floors that provide habitat for burrowing animals.

Directions and full background information will be sent to participants upon registration. Tickets, at $25 each, are available at the Science Center or by calling 968-7194.

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Larissa Mulkern may be reached at LMulkern@newstote.com.