I’ve always loved old barns. My grandma and grandpa had a huge red barn sitting on a steep hill next to their house. My cousins and I played in it all the time, even as it was beginning to become unsafe and warned not to. Daring kids we were. It was three stories with the top floor completely empty. Our uncles had installed basketball hoops at both ends and it made for an awesome court. Also, hanging from the center ridge beam was a long rope. We could take a running jump onto it and swing back and forth in a high, wide arc. It was exhilarating and fun! It didn’t take much to entertain us way back then.

Image by Ian Sane on Flickr.
I think of the kids that must have played in these barns – after their chores were done for the day; the mother who trudged out in the wee hours of the morn to milk the cow; the farmer who’s very livelihood revolved around the animals he kept and farming implements stored within that were so vital to his family’s existence. It was a hard row to hoe, but a simpler, straightforward way of life that’s rapidly becoming a long forgotten memory.

Abandoned barn near Hollis, New Hampshire. By SSKennel on Flickr.

Photo by Jo Naylor on Flickr.

Abandoned Rangerover and an isolated barn, with several other cars mouldering in the field alongside, near to Llanvihangel Crucorney, Monmouthshire/Sir Fynwy, Great Britain. Copyright Andy Dingley on Geograph.org.uk.

A substantial stone building which appears to have fallen out of use and been left derelict near to Swinscoe, Staffordshire, Great Britain Copyright James Allan on Geograph.org.uk.

An abandoned barn across the street from the old Christ Church – Laurel, Delaware by Lee Cannon, via Flickr

Abandoned barn in North Carolina by Rachel on Flickr.

Crumbling Barn with multiple old advertisements by Brent Moore on Flickr

Old Barn, Acton, MA 1972 by Don Graham on Flickr.

By jkdevleer04 on Flickr.

By PublicDomainPictures on Pixabay

Junior, West Virginia by Richard Freeman on Flickr.

Near Chattanooga, Tennessee by Brent Moore on Flickr.

Old stone barn in Wunderlich Park, Woodside, California. Part of the original Folger Estate. This is probably an old pump house or well-house with its proximity to the creek. Photo by Trace Nietert on Flickr.

Wooden barn at Seurasaari Open Air Museum, Helsinki, Southern Finland by Andy Siitonen on Flickr.

Old barn on Langleybury Lane, near Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire. Photo by Peter aka anemoneprojectors on Flickr.

The photographer called this a barn, but I think it’s a house. There are two chimney’s and a smallish front door. What do you think? Found near Marijampole, Lithuania, Sept. 2008. By Phillip Capper on Flickr.
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