Bärnkopf is a municipality in the district of Zwettl, in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is a small rural community rather than a city, and it lies in the Waldviertel, the forested northwestern quarter of Lower Austria that borders the Czech Republic.
The municipality is one of the highest and coldest places in Lower Austria, sitting in the Weinsberger Wald at an elevation of roughly 900 metres. Its landscape is dominated by dense coniferous forest, and its altitude gives it a markedly cooler and wetter climate than the Austrian lowlands, with long winters and heavy snowfall.
Bärnkopf is known above all for its setting within the Weinsberger Wald and for the surrounding woods, which support hiking and cross-country skiing. It is also home to a European hamsters conservation station, one of the few places in Austria where the species is studied and bred. Administratively it belongs to the Zwettl district, and its population is small, in keeping with its character as a scattered forest village.