13306: 4 Calbost

4 Calbost was lotted in about 1852 at the second lotting (the first was in 1818); the first tenant was Norman Mackenzie, Tormod Og, who had been born in Calbost in 1817 to Tormod Buidhe, the first tenant of 3 Calbost. The ruins of Tormod Og’s home may be seen on croft 4 close to the bottom of the hill, on the west bank of the stream. There Tormod and his wife raised a family of six. Other members of the family were settled on the croft as landless cottars.

The new house on the croft, situated on the brow of a hill within what was once the leas-mor of the tacksman, was ahead of its time in design, being the first in the village to have storm widows upstairs and a wooden floor throughout. The roof was of felt or canvas with regular coats of tar.

Roderick Mackenzie, Ruaridh Ruadh Thormoid Og (1849-1913) was the head of the family and a cottar, sharing the croft with the families of his brother Malcolm and sister Annie. He testified before the Royal Commision Highlands 1892 at a meeting in Stornoway on 9 July 1894. The acreage given for the croft was 1 acre, 3 roods, 8 poles arable and 2 roods, 27 poles outrun, as well as a share in the common grazings. The rent for 4 Calbost had been 3.55 and the revised fair rent was determined at 1.85. Roderick testified that there were four families on the croft, and only three houses, with four, five and ten inhabitants respectively – 19 people on two and a half acres.

A number of Calbost people joined with other landless families in 1891 in raiding Southern Park in the hope of acquiring some of the grossly under-used land there.

After the death of Flora (1874) Chaluim Thormoid  the croft divided between her cousin Mrs Matilda Mackenzie (1892-1974) (No 4a) and her nephew Malcolm Smith (1911) 5 Calbost.

According to Bill Lawson the first Tenant was Kenneth Maclean (1796-1882) mac Choinnich, 14 Calbost.