About sixteen years ago, there lived in the village of “Baile Mhuilinn,” in the West of Sutherlandshire, an old woman of about 95 years of age, known as Baraball n’ic Coinnich (Annabella Mackenzie). From her position, history, and various personal peculiarities, it was universally believed in the district that she was no other than the Baraball n’ic Coinnich of whom the Brahan Seer predicted that she would die of the measles. She had, however, arrived at such an advanced age, without any appearance or likelihood of her ever having that disease, that the prophet was rapidly losing credit in the district. About this time the measles had just gone the round of the place, and had made considerable havoc among old and young; but when the district was, so to speak, convalescent, the measles paid Baraball a visit, and actually carried her away, when within a few years of five score, leaving no doubt whatever in the minds of the people that she had died as foretold centuries before by the famous Coinneach Odhar.
The Seer, one day, pointing to the now celebrated Strathpeffer mineral wells, said:—“Uninviting and disagreeable as it now is, with its thick crusted surface and unpleasant smell, the day will come when it shall be under lock and key, and crowds of pleasure and health seekers shall be seen thronging its portals, in their eagerness to get a draught of its waters.”
Regarding the “land-grasping” Urquharts of Cromarty he predicted “that, extensive though their possessions in the Black Isle now are, the day will come—and it is close at hand—when they will not own twenty acres in the district.” This, like many of his other predictions, literally came to pass, although nothing could then have been more unlikely; for, at the time, the Urquharts possessed the estates of Kinbeachie, Braelangwell, Newhall, and Monteagle, but at this moment their only possession in the Black Isle is a small piece of Braelangwell.
That “the day will come when fire and water shall run in streams through all the streets and lanes of Inverness,” was a prediction, the fulfilment of which was quite incomprehensible, until the introduction of gas and water through pipes into every corner of the town.
“The day will come when long strings of carriages without horses shall run between Dingwall and Inverness, and more wonderful still, between Dingwall and the Isle of Skye.” It is hardly necessary to point out that this refers to the railway carriages now running in those districts.
That “a bald black girl will be born at the back of the Church of Gairloch” (Beirear nighean mhaol dubh air cùl Eaglais Ghearrloch), has been fulfilled. During one of the usual large gatherings at the Sacramental Communion a well-known young woman was taken in labour, and before she could be removed she gave birth to the “nighean mhaol dubh,” whose descendants are well known and pointed out in the district to this day as the fulfilment of Coinneach’s prophecy.
That “a white cow will give birth to a calf in the garden behind Gairloch House,” has taken place within the memory of people still living; that, in Fowerdale, “a black hornless cow (Bo mhaol dubh) will give birth to a calf with two heads,” happened within our own recollection. These predictions were well known to people before they came to pass.
The following are evidently fragments regarding the Lovat Estates. He said:—
Thig fear tagair bho dheas,