Brahan Seer Plaque
Brahan Seer Plaque at Chanonry Point.
The Brahan Seer, Kenneth Mackenzie (Coinneach Odhar in Gaelic ) was born in Scotland at the beginning of the 17th century.
Most of what we know about the Brahan Seer, (also known as Coinneach Odhar) derives from the oral tradition of the Gael. He was born in Uig on the Isle of Lewis in about 1650. Legend has it that he came into his talent after napping on a fairy hill and finding a small stone in his coat, which allowed him to view the future. A small round blue stone with a hole through which he would stare through its center,
The first literary reference to him comes in Pennant's "A Tour in Scotland" (1769). "Every country has its prophets... and the Highlands their Kenneth Odhar." The noted Scottish folklorist Alexander Mackenzie, is one of the primary sources for the Brahan Seer legend which was written in the late 19th century.
He is inevitably compared with Nostradamus. However, unlike Nostradamus, many of the predictions attributed to the Brahan Seer are very straightforward and literal. What we know was handed down by the Highland oral tradition, as most people Brahn-Seer3.jpgat that time were illiterate, there are no Brahan Seer manuscripts or old editions with known provenance which could be used to back-test his predictions, as with Nostradamus.
Of his many predictions handed down by word of mouth, some remain unfulfilled, others doubtfully or partly so. He is attributed with foretelling many events, even events that would occur after his death. His predictions dealt almost exclusively with the local area of Scotland where he lived.
His predictions included 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. Glad I am that I will not see that day, for it will be a fearful period: heads will be lopped off by the score and no mercy will be shown or quarter given on either side."
World War II "When it is possible to cross the River Ness dryshod in five places, a frightful disaster would strike the whole world"
The making of the Caledonian Canal "The time will come when full-rigged ships will be seen sailing eastwards and westwards by the back of Tomnahurich, near Inverness." The Caledonian Canal was completed in 1822.
Earl of Seaforth. "... The line of Seaforth will come to an end in sorrow. I see the last head of his house both deaf and dumb. He will be the father of four fair sons, all of whom he will follow to the tomb. He will live careworn, and die mourning, knowing that the honours of his line are to be extinguished forever, that his wife Isabella was outraged and ordered The Brahan Seer died here being thrown head first in to a vat of tar.The Brahan Seer to be taken and thrown head-first into a barrel of boiling tar. No future chief of the Mackenzies shall bear rule at Brahan or in Kintail."
At Chanonry Point, Fortrose - on the shore near Chanonry lighthouse, there is a plaque commemorating Kenneth MacKenzie (Coinneach Odhar) -
After a prohecy about the Earl of Seaforth being unfaithful to his wife"Your husband is this moment with another who is fairer than yourself" The Brahan Seer, died by being thrown head-first into a barrel of boiling tar. Situated east of Fortrose off the A832.