22448: Malcolm Mackay

Calum Dhòmhnaill

Malcolm (1801-1894) was a son of Donald Mackay and Christina Macphail, Kirvick, Carloway. Known as  Calum Og hence his descendants were known locally as Na Ogaich. He was the first crofting tenant on croft 7 Calbost. 

Oral tradition informs us that to begin with he came to Gravir to work for a man called Aonghais Ruadh when he was only 12 years old. It is thought that Aonghais Ruadh, Angus Maclean resided where croft 35 Gravir is now and that he was a brother of Coinneach Ruadh, Kenneth Maclean who was at Calbost and moved to croft 15 Gravir. It appears they came from Shawbost. It was the custom at the time that young people were engaged as sgalagan servants or more correctly slaves, for little more than their keep and their training. In some homes they were worked very hard both in agriculture and fishing. The idea was a form of residential school.

It appears that Calum Og Mackay's conditions of work was pretty harsh and eventually he decided to run off home. His employer however noticed his absence and went after him to bring him back. On catching up with him some miles away his employer reasoned with him and in the end they both agreed on improved conditions of work. In future Calum was to be granted the concession of being permitted to partake of his own breakfast before feeding the farmyard animals in the early morning.

We do not know if Calum stayed in Park until he married about the age of 27 years but he was in Park for the rest of his long life of 93 years. Yet he never forgot his birthplace and use to say:

Cuiribh mise a Chiribhic gus an teid an uir tioram orm

"Bury me in the dry soil of Kirivick"

The inference is that he did not think much of Park as a last resting place.

At that time however the old man's wish was physically impossible to carry out because of the lack of roads and the difficulty of conveying his remains from one side of the island to the other. Probably he was buried in Gravir or St Colm Island in Loch Erisort. There are Mackay relatives still living in the Carloway area.

Croft 7 Calbost was the smallest croft in the village and it was situated in the middle of the village without any direct access to the Common Grazing, which was rather inconvenient from the point of view of stock movement over other people's land.

In Lochs, in 1828, he married Christina Maclean, 15 Gravir  but he did not get an official croft until the second lotting about 1852. He was therefore a landless cottar at Calbost for about 23 years and all of his family of six were born before the Lewis Estate recognised him to be an official crofter.