7611: 5 Calbost

Roderick (1823-77), son of Donald Smith and Margaret Macdonald, 5 Calbost married Catherine Macleod, 15 Cromore. Four of their sons were obliged to settle on the family croft because there was no other land available. There was therefore gross overcrowding on croft 5 Calbost for a long period, as indeed there was on all Calbost crofts. In 1891 the Smith brothers (balaich Rhuraidh Gobha) joined in the extensive land raiding movement in Southern Park that year.

Their contemporary Angus Morrison, 9 Calbost, who was with them in the land raiding, often related how Mrs Smith asked her sons to bring back a sample of the soil of Steimreway which was the place the Calbost contingent was land raiding.

The young men forgot their mother’s request to bring back a sample of the soil. It was when they came within sight of their home when they were returning that they remembered. So they scooped up a pocketful of the soil of their own “Loba-Ruadh” and duly presented the sample to their mother who tasted it in her mouth and declared it to be very good soil, the very same kind of soil as our own “Loba-Ruadh” she said.

The croft is in two parts, having acquired a small extension at the north end of the village in about 1901.

The croft was passed to Malcolm Smith (1911-1982) and then to Duncanina’s daughter.