By Rodger Moffet
Living around the same time as the legendary Nostradamus was a farm labourer called Coinneach Odhar. His prophesies are maybe not as well known as his contemporary but the alarming accuracy of his predictions has added to the sense of mystery that still exists around the Black Isle. Indeed many of those local to this area of Scotland still hold his predictions in great reverence.
The 'Brahan Seer was possibly born near Uig on the Isle of Lewis towards the end of the 17th Century. His gift of 'Second Sight' was reputed to come from a small blue and black stone with a hole in the centre. Popular legend has it that his mother had witnessed spirits wandering near a graveyard and had prevented one spirit from returning after her wanderings. She finally allowed the spirit to go back to rest and she had been given the stone as a gift in return.
Coinneach Odhar's travels led him to an area near Strathpeffer. He lived by Loch Ussie and worked on the Brahan estates; home to the powerful Seaforth MacKenzies. It was from here that many of his prophesies were made.
He predicted the Battle of Culloden and the demise of the Highland way of life; in one prediction he was walking on Drummossie moor when he said "Thy bleak wilderness will be stained by the best blood of the Highlands. Glad I am that I will not live to see that day where heads will be lopped off in the heather and no lives spared." Half a century later the infamous battle was fought on this spot. furthermore in another prediction he said that "the clans will become so effeminate as to flee from their native country before an army of sheep." A very direct reference to the Highland Clearances.
Some of his predictions saw a return of the fortunes of Scotland and other advancement such as his statement: "Strange as it may seem to you this day, time will come, and it is not far off, when full-rigged ships will be seen sailing eastward and westward by the back of Tomnahurich, near Inverness." 150 years later the Caledonian Canal linked the Lochs along the Great Glen. He was also reported to have said that Scotland's Parliament would return when a man could walk from England to France without getting their feet wet. With the building of the channel tunnel this was indeed possible and the parliament soon followed.
Other predictions sounded downright bizarre. In nearby Strathpeffer he predicted that when a fifth spire was built in the town a ship would snag its anchor on the newest one. The townsfolk were mindful of this years later when indeed a fifth spire was erected in the town. Thinking that the predicted a great flood they were relived in 1932 when an airship attending a nearby fair caught its moorings in the spire and fulfilled the prediction.
Unfortunately for the seer the accurate and precise nature of his predictions were to be his downfall:
His powers had come to the attention of his employers the Earl of Seaforth and his wife. While the Earl was away in Paris his wife Isabella called for Coinneach Odhar and asked him to tell her how her husband was. The seer seemed reluctant to give any information and simply said that he was in good health. This enraged Isabella who demanded more information, the seer then told her that her husband was on his knees in front of a French lady fairer than herself. This was too much for Lady Isabella and she flew into a rage and had the poor seer thrown into a barrel of tar.
As he was being dragged off to meet his fate he made his last and most chilling prediction as a curse on the family of MacKenzie; "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 no future chief of the Mackenzies shall bear rule at Brahan or in Kintail."
In 1783 Francis Humberston Mackenzie inherited the title. He was indeed deaf and mute due to a childhood attack of scarlet fever. He had 4 children all of whom died prematurely fulfilling the final prophesy.
To this day the Brahan Seers predictions are remembered in this part of the highlands. The fireside tales have been passed down through generations and some evidence exists on how serious the local people take his prophesies. In the small town of Strathpeffer stands the Eagle Stone; a small celtic standing stone. He predicted that if the stone fell three times the nearby loch would burst its banks and flood the village. It has fallen twice already and is now cemented into place!
Major Weir - The Wizard of the West Bow
By Rodger Moffet
The narrow winding streets and dark cavernous closes of Edinburgh can feel eerie enough at night as you walk alone. But listen out for the wrap of a cane on the cobbles and look out for a dark shadowy figure for it may be the ghost of Major Weir -The Wizard of the West Bow!
Major Thomas Weir was born in 1599 and had a significant military career as a covenanting soldier. He led the escort that carried the Marquis of Montrose to his execution and was captain of the Town Guard in Edinburgh until 1650. A tall stern looking man he was always seen carrying a black thornwood staff, carved with satyr heads wherever he went.
Weir lived in Edinburgh's West Bow a winding street that ran from the Royal Mile down towards the Grassmarket. The street Links the two halves of Edinburgh perfectly; at the top the Castle, Courts, Libraries and Cathedrals of Edinburgh's high culture. Down via Victoria Street you descend into the bars, inns and the darker side of the city leading to the rear of Greyfriars Churchyard where the likes of Burke & Hare were known to stalk.
In Weirs time though the street was a well known area where many of the cities most pious citizens lived. The Presbyterians who lived there were known as the 'Bowhead Saints'. Of all the Religious men who lived there Weir was considered the purest and one of the most active, frequently attending religious meetings and leading the company in prayer - never without his trusty staff.
Thomas Weir lived with his sister Jean (though some refer to her by the less flattering name "Grizel"). It seemed like the perfect hallowed arrangement. All this was to change though when during one of Weir's many prayer meetings he suddenly appeared to be struck down by a strange illness...
Without warning the Major suddenly began to confess of the most unspeakable crimes. He announced his incestuous relationship with Jean along with shocking tales of fornication with all manner of women and beasts.
At first no one could believe it - Weir was such a pillar of the community that the provost, Sir Andrew Ramsay, refused to take it seriously. Then, when his sister Jean backed up his story by admitting to years of incest they had to arrest the Major. The trial began on April 9, 1670 and Jean told how the talent for witchcraft has been inherited from their mother, she revealed that Thomas bore the mark of the Beast on his body and that they frequently roamed the countryside in a fiery coach, popping down the road to Musselbugh and Dalkeith to do their devilish work.
Jean warned the town authorities of the power of Weir's infamous staff. She claimed it was the source of his power and had been given to him by the devil himself. With such shocking evidence the assembled worthies took no time to convict Weir of witchcraft and he was taken to a spot on the cities boundary with Leith (just off Leith Walk near where Pilrig Street lies today) where he was strangled and burnt.
As the rope was put around Weir's neck he was asked to say "Lord be merciful to me". Instead he apparently replied:
"Let me alone, I will not. I have lived as a beast, and I must die as a beast". His sister was similarly unrepentant and there are tales that she tore off her clothes on the scaffold making the scene even more wretched and shocking. Major Thomas Weir was the last man executed for witchcraft in Scotland. As his body burned his staff was thrown into the fire. Witnesses said that it took an unusually long time to burn and made strange turning movements as it burned.
With such a shocking history no one dared live in the old Major's house and for over 100 years it lay empty. Some who dared to spend the night nearby recounted the sound of revelry coming from the house and other strange occurrences. finally the house was pulled down in the 19th century.
Many claim that the ghost of Major Weir still roams the streets and closes near to the West Bow, wile others claim that they have seen his devilish staff roaming the streets by itself searching for its master.
Urquhart Castle and The Magic Well
By Amanda Moffet
Way back in the days before Urquhart Castle existed in the days when the Great Glen was just starting to have settlers - perhaps some of our Urquhart ancestors before the name of Urquhart was even spoken - and took advantage of it's abundant food and resources. It was a fertile valley which made life easy.
Legend has it that these people had a magical well, a spring which Daly the Druid had made magical, which brought forth healing waters for all ills. There was a condition placed on using this magical well - after each use, the cover had to be placed back upon the well lest the well rise up and destroy the valley.
Alas, one day, a mother had removed the cover from the well and was drawing the magical water. Her baby started to cry and when she heard, like all good mothers, she went to her child's aid. In her speed to do so, she neglected to replace the cover upon the magic well and although she may have had all intentions of doing so, by the time she realized she had left the cover off unattended, the well had turned into a roaring fountain of water, gushing forth water with such force that she had no option but to run with her baby, clambering up the sides of the valley.
The other settlers, seeing and hearing the great commotion and roaring of the water, also took to the paths up out of the valley, knowing that all was now lost. Their homes, possessions, all were lost, but they managed to escape the rising water.
One of those who escaped, looking back at their great valley filling with water almost as fast as they could climb, cried out in disbelief and anguish "Tha loch ann a nis!" - which means "There is a lake in it now!" That great valley of the Great Glen, draws it's name from those words "Loch ann a nis": Loch Ness.
So, all I can say is this, if your over by Urquhart Castle having a look for Nessy, remember those waters around the Urquhart stronghold have magical healing properties, as I cannot find any reference to that healing well ever being covered again.
So it was that a magical well and the careless action of that mother in haste produced the landscape and loch that the setting of Urquhart Castle takes advantage of.
The Wizard laird of Skene's dance with the devil
By Amanda Moffet
Skene Loch is an eerie and forbidding place, particularly on cold evenings in the dead of winter - when the waters on the loch can freeze over. If you were to brave the icy conditions and venture down to the lochside and look across the frozen loch you might see what seems like a mysterious set of curved tracks embedded in the ice. Tracks which look newly made by a coach or carriage.
You could put this down to a trick of the light but there's a local tale behind these strange markings. A legend that has passed down over centuries. This story is about the sinister local landowner who was allied with the devil … those with psychic powers swear they can still feel his presence to this day.
So the tracks on the ice? are they a lasting reminder of the day Auld Nick himself paid a visit to his devil-worshipping friend the Wizard Laird of Skene.
Alexander Skene, the 16th Laird, was the man the devil had come to Aberdeenshire to see. It was said the laird never cast a shadow, was followed everywhere by magpies or crows and had the power to reest, or glue, his enemies to the spot where they stood. On at least one occasion Skene was kept awake by neighbors enjoying a ceilidh. His reaction was to cast a spell on the revellers which made them unable to stop dancing - until their feet bled and they cried in agony.
His mastery of the black arts had been learned while he was a young student at the University of Padua in northern Italy. One of the most famous seats of learning in Europe, Padua was noted for the views some of its members held on the then-controversial subjects of astronomy and necromancy. Many returned with "peculiar ideas" about the heavens and the black arts. The Wizard Laird went one step further and formed a pact with the devil.
The wizard's coachman was named Kilgour and was well used to his master's eccentricities - but nothing could have prepared him for the night the devil came calling.
Kilgour was ordered to prepare the coach and horses at midnight to transport his special guest from Skene House, the family mansion. But the laird made Kilgour promise that on no account was he to turn round and look at the stranger.
As the coach and horses sped through the dark countryside, the laird told Kilgour to take the more direct route across the Loch of Skene. There had only been one night's frost and the coachman said such a journey would be impossible - but the wizard told him not to worry, the ice was strong enough.
The night would have passed without incident had Kilgour's curiosity not got the better of him. As they were approaching the other side of the loch he did what his master had told him not to do - he turned round. What he saw terrified him. For there sat the unmistakable horned, cloven-footed figure of the devil himself - Auld Nick.
