There was a wright from Kinloch Rannoch who kept hearing planes and hammers at work, a sign that somebody was going to die and that he would soon be making their coffin. He used to hear these sounds so often and was so affected by it that he emigrated to Australia. So, for some, the gift would have felt like a curse. But not all visions were of impending disaster, some could see pleasant events such as their future wife, and others could find things that were lost, like Rachel MacGregor who had this ability and was able to tell the family of a drowned man the exact location of his body, without being familiar to the area.
Brahan Seer
The most famous of all the Highland seers is Coinneach Odhar, the Brahan Seer, although some dispute the existence of this 17th century prophet. He was believed to see into the future using his adder stone. Born in Uig (Lewis), he was employed by the Seaforth Mackenzie clan at Brahan Castle near Dingwall. Some of the prophecies he is credited with are the Highland Clearances: “the clans will become so effeminate as to flee from their native country before an army of sheep”; World War II: he warned that the fifth bridge over the river Ness would signal global chaos, with this bridge being completed in 1939; Railways: “black, bridleless horses” emitting fire and steam; Piper Alpha disaster: building nine bridges over the river Ness would bring “fire, blood and calamity” – the ninth bridge was built in 1987 and in 1988, fire consumed this oil rig off the coast of Aberdeen; the battle of Culloden: “Oh Drumossie, thy bleak moor shall, ere many generations have passed away, be stained with the best blood of the Highlands.”
Coinneach Odhar predicted that if the Eagle Stone in Strathpeffer fell down three times, Loch Ussie would flood the valley below so that ships could sail to Strathpeffer. The stone has tumbled twice. Today, it sets in concrete to prevent a third fall.
He was found guilty of witchcraft and executed by burning in a spiked tar barrel at Chanonry Point in 1675. His execution was ordered by Lady Isabella Seaforth after he predicted her husband’s infidelity. During the execution, Coinneach Odhar prophesied the end of the Mackenzie line: “one who couldn’t speak or hear would cause the House of Seaforth to end.” Francis Humberston Mackenzie became Earl in 1783 but was left mute and deaf after contracting scarlet fever as a child. All four of his children died prematurely, thus bringing an end to the bloodline.
Lady of Lawers
This seeress is believed to be a Stewart of Appin in Argyll, brought to Loch Tay in 1645 to marry the younger brother of the 6th Laird of Lawers. In 1669 a Church was built at Lawers, a village between between Killin and Kenmore. It was close to her house so the Lady of Lawers could watch its progress closely, and several of her prophecies were tied in with this church. “The ridging stones shall never be placed on the roof of the church.” The carved capping stones had that day been brought by boat from Kenmore, but in the night a violent storm blew up and the stones were washed into the silt in the Loch, where they can still be seen today. She is said to have planted an ash tree near the church, and declared that when the tree was as tall as the gable of Lawers Church, there would be a breaking in the Church.
The year the tree reached the gables a storm caused the loft of the building to fall in. Some believe it also referred to the 1843 Disruption ten years later, when the congregation joined the Free Church. The most ominous prophecy involving the tree was this: “A sudden accident will befall the man who cuts the tree.” In 1895 a man called John Campbell cut the tree, with the help of a friend. A short time later he was skewered to death by his own bull. The friend went insane shortly after, and even the horse used to pull the tree away died an early death.
She foresaw the agricultural revolution and she predicted that “the jaw of the sheep” would “put the plough out of the soil” and that the land would first be “riddled” and then “sifted” of its people, predicting the Clearances. All of her prophecies have been fulfilled except this one: “Ben Lawers will be so cold that the land will be laid to waste for seven miles around it.”
Petty Seer
The Rev. John Morrison (1701 -1774) was a minister of Petty, a parish east of Inverness, from 1749 to his death. John Morrison’s sayings and doings were gathered by A. B. MacLennan in a small book called “The Petty Seer”. Morrison predicted the Petty evictions and the next stages of agriculture. His most famous prophecy, also attributed to the Brahan Seer, involved the Stone of Petty (Clach an Àbain). In 1772 or 1773
he said from the pulpit: “If you don’t turn away from your bad ways, God will sweep you into the place where no mercy is obtained. As a sign that I am telling the truth, Clach an Àbain will be moved […] towards the sea without a person putting his hand on it!” In 1799 the stone, weighing 8 tonnes, was moved into the sea. A natural explanation was suggested that a thick sheet of ice formed under the stone and then moved by the tide some 260 yards further into the bay.
Hugh Miller
Born in Cromarty in 1802, Hugh Miller was a self-educated polymath, geologist and writer. Aged 17, he became a stonemason, using his spare time to continue his education in the fields of Natural History and Literature. He published Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland (1829) which gained attention from the scientific community. In 1840 he moved to Edinburgh to edit The Witness, a highly influential journal
that did much to bring about the Free Kirk. A year later, he published The Old Red Sandstone, a description of the geology of Cromarty, with diversions into its scenery, history and folklore. Hugh Miller had some experiences of second sight, the first occurring at age five, when he reported seeing a disembodied hand and arm, which coincided with his father’s ship sinking at sea.
As an adult, he dreamed of a specific gravesite, which later matched the location of his cousin’s burial. Struggling with silicosis due to his previous work as a mason, perhaps also overworked and depressed, Hugh Miller shot himself on Christmas Eve 1856, after checking the final proofs of his book The Testimony of the Rocks.
Read more: The Highland Seer, Swein MacDonald
