Emily Chan
The Brahan Seer, or Coinneach Odhar, was a Scottish predictor of the future. He was born Kenneth Mackenzie at the beginning of the seventeenth century near the Parish of Uig and Island of Lewis and worked as a farm laborer.
According to legend, Kenneth was gifted with the “Second Sight.” In Scotland, the Second Sight is known as the ability to see visions from the regular world and the spirit world.
It is said that his special sight was caused by his mother. One night, his mother had witnessed the ghost of a Danish princess heading back to her grave. She stopped the spirit from returning to her grave until the ghost carried out her wishes.
She requested that her son Kenneth be given the gift of the Second Sight. Only then did she allow the princess to go back to rest.
Later, Kenneth discovered a small stone with a hole in its center. When he looked through the hole, he could see images that foretold the future.
Many of the seer’s prophecies came true in the years after his death, and here are some of the most well-known ones.
Almost a hundred years before The Battle of Culloden occurred in 1745, Kenneth had predicted the event in the moorlands. The infamous battle had been fought in the very spot where he uttered the fateful words:
“Oh! Drumossie, thy bleak moor shall, ere many generations have passed away, be stained with the best blood of the Highlands. Glad am I that I will not see the day, for it will be a fearful period; heads will be lopped off by the score, and no mercy shall be shown or quarter given on either side.”
In another prediction referencing the Highland Clearances (1750–1860), he declared that the day would come when the people would be forced to flee their native country before an army of sheep.
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