~ Mist Covered Mountains ~
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Coinneach Odhar (Kenneth MacKenzie) is the most famous seer of the Gaidhealtachd. Born on the Isle of Lewis at the beginning of the seventeenth century, he achieved great fame throughout the Scottish Highlands for his gift of the Second Sight, said to have been given to him by the sidhe. When he was still a young boy he was led to a special blue stone (a holed stone) which, when looked through, enabled him to see into the future. Many of his prophecies have come true and have been recited from generation to generation, such as the following:

* The battle of Culloden (1745), which he uttered at the site, and his words were recorded. "This bleak moor, ere many generations have passed, shall be stained with the best blood in Scotland. Glad I am that I will not see that day."
* The joining of the lochs in the Great Glen; accomplished by the construction of the Caledonian Canal in the 19th Century.
* Pointing to a field far from seashore, loch or river, he said that a ship would anchor there one day. The canal did not come near the spot, so folk decided this prophecy must be incorrect until one day in the 1930s an Airship did indeed tie up there.
* He foresaw the Age of Railways, referring to the railway tracks as "black bridleless horses".
* He made a number of predictions concerning the Highland Clearances: "the day will come when the Big Sheep will overrun the country to its northmost shore"; and: "the clans will become so effeminate as to flee from their native hills before an army of sheep".
True to his predictions, scenes such as the forcible eviction of families and resultant hardships of facing a winter without shelter (below) became commonplace throughout Scotland.
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* The Brahan Seer foresaw the age of piped gas and water: "the day will come when fire and water shall run in streams through all the streets and lanes of Inverness." (Installed in 1829).
* He made two predictions concerning 'Tomnahurich', the fairy hill of Inverness. He said that: "ships will one day sail round the back of it" (in 1847 the Caledonian canal was built).
* Also, he said that one day the Fairy Hill would be under lock and key and the fairies secured within. In 1860 it was made into a cemetery.
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We are still waiting for these
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* "One day a black rain will fall on the City of Aberdeen". Optimists hope this refers to the North Sea Oil Fields and the big business it has brought to Aberdeen. Pessimists fear it predicts Nuclear War.
* "Rome was; London is; Edinburgh will be." This seems to imply that the Scottish Capital City will someday become more important than the British Capital of London.
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The Brahan Seer made a great many predictions, some quite bizarre, some as yet unfulfilled. Sadly, the people of his own era did not appreciate his gift, and he was cruelly burnt to death in a barrel of tar on the Black Isle. There is to this day a stone marking the place. It is said that just before he went into the barrel, he threw away his precious stone into a pool, saying that those who brought this crime upon him would never possess the stone nor ever know its secret. Where the stone landed, loch Ussie is said to have burst forth.
Yet this greatest of seers is not forgotten, for he is but one more link in the endless web, the true dreaming of the Gael, who sees with one eye in this world, while the other looks into the world beyond with a deep longing. The materialists may snort and scoff, but it is impossible to dismiss lightly the testimony of thousands who have actually seen age-old, or month-old, prophecies come true.
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