Colbost

Colbost, on the shores of Loch Dunvegan, should not be confused with Carbost, where the whisky comes from, on the shores of Loch Harport.

Colbost is on the Dunvegan to Neist Point Road and is of interest for two reasons.

The first is the Three Chimneys Restaurant, which has a reputation for fine food. I have not eaten there recently, but when I last did I found it to be excellent.

Secondly, next to the restaurant is the Skye Black House Museum, which is a croft house which has been restored to make it the way it would have been in the early nineteenth century.

As can be seen from the photos, it has an earth floor and a thatched roof. The fire was centrally placed with the smoke (sometimes!) rising through a hole in the roof. It was, to put it mildly, primitive. In 1893 Chambers, a publishing company, published a gazetteer of the world. In the section on Skye it felt it necessary to reassure the traveller that "The natives are for the most part poor and ill-housed, but well behaved and intelligent!"

 
 

 The black house from the rear

 And from the front
   

The living room and the crofter's bed

 Another view of the living room

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Copyright © Gareth Boote 2000