Many byres are partially underground with just the downhill wall showing. The barn built above the byre is of wooden construction, with the beams assembled roughly to allow air to circulate.
For various reasons, in particular the difficulty of transporting hay, not all the fodder could be kept in one single barn. For this reason barns were built away from the village in the middle of the fields. The cattle were moved from one byre to another as hay supplies were exhausted.