22485: Malcolm Mackay

Calum Chaluim Dhòmhnaill

Malcolm  (1841-1920) was a son of Malcolm Mackay and Christina Maclean, 7 Calbost. 

In Stornoway, in 1864, he married Margaret Chisolm, 29 Gravir. Malcolm and Margaret were cottars at 7 Calbost and they had seven children.  

Malcolm was widowed in 1883 and at Wick, in 1884, married his second wife Ann MacLeod, 1 Achmore.  Malcolm and Ann had a son, Donald, who died in infancy.

He was an office bearer in the Park Free Church congregation at Gravir. When the old Prayer house at croft 6 Calbost fell into disuse in the first decade of the 20th century, Calum Beag's house was used as the weekly village prayer house until a new village prayer house was built about 1926 on a feu on croft 14 Calbost. That prayer house at 14 Calbost was extended twice because of the way it was overcrowded on the Sunday evenings. It was again re-furbished about 1970 and it was still in good condition in the 1990s although it has not been used since about 1980. The building is now a family home.