Another prediction is that concerning the Canonry of Ross, which is still standing—“The day will come when, full of the Mackenzies, it will fall with a fearful crash”. This may come to pass in several ways. The Canonry is the principal burying-place of the Clan, and it may fall when full of dead Mackenzies, of when a large concourse of the Clan is present at the funeral of a great chief.
“When two false teachers shall come across the seas who will revolutionize the religion of the land, and nine bridges shall span the river Ness, the Highlands will be overrun by ministers without grace and women without shame,” is a prediction which some maintain has all the appearance of being rapidly fulfilled at this moment. It has been suggested that the two false teachers were no other than the great evangelists, Messrs. Moody and Sankey, who, no doubt, from Coinneach Odhar’s standpoint of orthodoxy, who must have been a Roman Catholic or an Episcopalian, attempted to revolutionize the religion of the Highlands. If this be so, the other portions of the prophecy are looming not far off in the immediate future. We have already eight bridges on the Ness—the eighth has only been completed last year—and the ninth is almost finished. If we are to accept the opinions of certain of the clergy themselves, “ministers without grace” are becoming the rule, and as for a plenitude of “women without shame,” ask any ancient matron, and she will at once tell you that Kenneth’s prophecy may be held to have been fulfilled in that particular any time within the last half century. Gleidh sinne!!
It is possible the following may have something to do with the same calamity in the Highlands. Mr. Maclennan says:—With reference to some great revolution which shall take place in the country, Coinneach Odhar said that “before that event shall happen, the water of the river Beauly will thrice cease to run. On one of these occasions a salmon, having shells instead of scales, will be found in the bed of the river.” This prophecy has been in part fulfilled, for the Beauly has on two occasions ceased to run, and a salmon of the kind mentioned has been found in the bed of the river.
Mr. Macintyre gives another version:—“When the river Beauly is dried up three times, and a ‘scaly salmon’ or royal sturgeon, is caught in the river, that will be a time of great trial.” (Nuair a thraoghas abhainn na Manachain tri uairean, agus a ghlacair Bradan Sligeach air grunnd na h-aibhne, ’s ann an sin a bhitheas an deuchainn ghoirt.) The river has been already dried up twice, the last time in 1826, and a ‘Bradan Sligeach,’ or royal sturgeon, measuring nine feet in length, has been caught in the estuary of the Beauly about two years ago.
The following is one which we trust may never be realized in all its details, though some may be disposed to think that signs are not wanting of its ultimate fulfilment:—“The day will come when the jaw-bone of the big sheep, or ‘caoirich mhora,’ will put the plough on the rafters (air an aradh); when sheep shall become so numerous that the bleating of the one shall be heard by the other from Conchra in Lochalsh to Bun-da-Loch in Kintail they shall be at their height in price, and henceforth will go back and deteriorate, until they disappear altogether, and be so thoroughly forgotten that a man finding the jaw-bone of a sheep in a cairn, will not recognise it, or be able to tell what animal it belonged to. The ancient proprietors of the soil shall give place to strange merchant proprietors, and the whole Highlands will become one huge deer forest; the whole country will be so utterly desolated and depopulated that the crow of a cock shall not be heard north of Druim-Uachdair; the people will emigrate to Islands now unknown, but which shall yet be discovered in the boundless oceans, after which the deer and other wild animals in the huge wilderness shall be exterminated and drowned by horrid black rains (siantan dubha). The people will then return and take undisturbed possession of the lands of their ancestors.”
We have yet to see the realization of the following:—“A dun, hornless, cow (supposed to mean a steamer) will appear in the Minch (off Carr Point, in Gairloch), and make a ‘geum,’ or bellow, which will knock the six chimneys off Gairloch House.” (Thig bo mhaol odhar a steach an t-Aite-mor agus leigeas i geum aiste ’chuireas na se beannagan dheth an Tigh Dhige.) Gairloch House, or the Tigh Dige of Coinneach’s day, was the old house which stood in the park on the right, as you proceed from the bridge in the direction of the present mansion. The walls were of wattled twigs, wicker work, or plaited twig hurdles, thatched with turf or divots, and surrounded with a deep ditch, which could, in time of approaching danger, be filled with water from the river, hence the name “Tigh Dige,” House of the Ditch. It has been suggested that the Seer’s prediction referred to this stronghold, but a strong objection to this view appears in the circumstance that the ancient citadel had no chimneys to fall off. The present mansion is, however, also called the “Tigh Dige,” and it has the exact number of chimneys—six.
“The day will come when a river in Wester Ross shall be dried up.” “The day will come when there shall be such dire persecution and bloodshed in the county of Sutherland, that people can ford the river Oykel dryshod, over dead men’s bodies.” “The day will come when a raven, attired in plaid and bonnet, will drink his full of human blood on ‘Fionn-bheinn,’ three times a day, for three successive days.”
“A battle will be fought at Ault-nan-Torcan, in the Lewis, which will be a bloody one indeed. It will truly take place, though the time may be far hence, but woe to the mothers of sucklings that day. The defeated host will continue to be cut down till it reaches Ard-a-chaolais (a place nearly seven miles from Ault-nan-Torcan), and there the swords will make terrible havoc.” This has not yet occurred.
Speaking of what should come to pass in the parish of Lochs, he said—“At bleak Runish in Lochs, they will spoil and devour, at the foot of the crags, and will split heads by the score.” He is also said to have predicted “that the day will come when the raven will drink its three fulls of the blood of the Clan Macdonald on the top of the Hills of Minaraidh in Parks, in the parish of Lochs”. This looks as if the one above predicted about the Mackenzies had been misapplied to the Macdonalds. “The day will come when there shall be a laird of Tulloch who will kill four wives in succession, but the fifth shall kill him.”
Regarding the battle of Ard-nan-Ceann, at Benbecula, North Uist, he said—“Oh, Ard-nan-Ceann, Ard-nan-Ceann, glad am I that I will not be at the end of the South Clachan that day, when the young men will be weary and faint; for Ard-nan-Ceann will be the scene of a terrible conflict”.