A bank barn or banked barn is a style of barn noted for its accessibility, at ground level, on two separate levels. Often built into the side of a hill or bank, the upper and the lower floors could be accessed from ground level, one area at the top of the hill and the other at the bottom. The second level of a bank barn could also be accessed from a ramp if a hill was unavailable.
Examples of bank barns can be found in the United Kingdom, in the United States, in eastern Canada, in Norway, in the Dordogne in France, and in Umbria, Italy, amongst other places.
I have a barn that with a central bay that was originally designed for supporting hatywagons, so it's undergirded by three huge tree trunks used as beams (running longitudinally, parallel to wheel tracks). It has previously been rated by an engineer as being capable of supporting 45 psf at its...