Kenneth Mackenzie, also known as Coinneach Odhar or the Brahan Seer, was a legendary Scottish clairvoyant. Tradition dates his birth to the early 17th century in Uig, on the island of Lewis. This is the northernmost island of the Outer Hebrides, a chain of islands to the west of Scotland’s northern coast. 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.

The fey stone with a hole in it, aremarkably reminiscent of the seeing stone in the Spiderwick Chronicles, is traditionally full of power. Predictably, legend has it that he was eventually burned to death as a sorcerer by being immersed in a barrel of burning tar. Before his death he forespoke the doom of the noble Mackenzie family who had him executed: the last male heir of this line would be deaf. In the 19th century this came true, as the last of the Mackenzies lost his hearing in his youth.

He is inevitably compared with Nostradamus. However, unlike Nostradamus, many of predictions attributed to the Brahan Seer are very straightforward and literal, instead of being cloaked in word games, riddles and allegory. For instance, a typical prediction is that a specific church roof would collapse when a magpie made a nest in it for three years running. There are predictions of the birth of a two-headed calf, a boulder falling over, and the plaintive death of a French expatriate in the Isles, mourned by a local woman. Other reputed predictions were of “a chariot without horse or bridle”, and “fiery chariot[s]” which could interpreted as a premonition of railroads or automobiles, and “hills strewn with ribbons”, which sound like powerlines, but this is about as futuristic as he gets. Unlike Nostradamus, none of his predictions are about geopolitics, global war, or the distant future.

He predicted the Caledonian Canal.

One day ships will sail round the back of Tomnahurich Hill.

This is a remarkable prediction – firstly, there was already a passage for shipping – the River Ness, on the opposite south side of Tomnahurich Hill from today’s canal – and the only choice for boats in the Brahan Seer’s day. To say that ships would sail round the opposite side of the hill from the river seemed highly illogical to those who first heard the prediction. But the prediction came true.

He predicted the demise of the MacKenzies of Kintail and Seaforth.

The day will come when the MacKenzies of Fairburn shall lose their entire possessions; their castle will become uninhabited and a cow shall give birth to a calf in the uppermost chamber of the tower.

In 1851, the now-ruined tower was being used by a farmer to store hay, and a cow gave birth in the garret. It is believed that the animal, following a trail of hay, entered the tower, climbed to the top, and got stuck. Both the cow and the calf were taken down five days later, allowing enough time for people to come and see the prophecy fulfilled. This was one of four prophecies by the Seer regarding Fairburn, at least three of which are reputed to have been fulfilled.

He predicted that when there were five bridges over the River Ness in Inverness that there would be worldwide chaos.

In August 1939 there were five bridges over the Ness and on September 1st the same year Hitler invaded Poland. He said that when there were nine bridges that there would be fire, flood and calamity. The ninth bridge was built in 1987 and in 1988 the Piper Alpha disaster happened.

References:

Scottish Myths and Legends

The Brahan Seer Home

Wikipedia

The Brahan Seer

The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer, Alexander Mackenzie, 1899 – Sacred Texts

Originally posted 2008-03-30 16:33:05. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Well, not exactly a Tour – yet <grin>! We are going along to the Long Man at Wilmington today to visit the Druids at the Anderida Gorsedd meeting. So, if you’re in the area and want to come along and say hello to us we’d love to see you! The meeting starts at 2 pm. The Anderida Gorsedd open rituals began on the Spring Equinox 2000, the dream of Druids Damh the Bard and Cerri Lee to revive the regular celebrations of the old Pagan festivals in the sacred landscape of Sussex. On that cold day 7 people braved the weather for a walk up the hill to the Long Man, and there the Gorsedd was proclaimed. By Beltane six weeks later word had spread throughout the Pagan community and 40 people joined together to celebrate the Rites of Spring.

Since then the Gorsedd open rituals have been held for every fire festival, equinox and solstice, rain or shine, and it is this reliability and consistency that have been the root of its success. Now anywhere between 50 and 100 people gather under the Long Man to honour the turning tides of the Wheel of the Year, sharing laughter, tears, song and story, as the Gorsedd enters it eighth year. You can find out more here. Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2008-05-04 08:54:36. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Kelly Heckart, one of our favourite authors, has a piece included in the collection of faerie stories called “In the Gloaming” which you can find outmore about at her site. She ahs appeared as a guest blogger on the Romance Junkies blog where she tells us about her passion for Celtic Men. It is a fun blog to read and she does come up with avery interesting point about channeling aggression, when she says:

If modern Celtic men with pent up fire burning inside could walk around with big swords sheathed in leather at their sides, and engage in a cattle raid or two, they might not get into so much trouble if they could divert some of that passion..

It does make you wonder.. Celtic tribes would live ‘next door’ to each other and raid each other quite happily. Raids would test the mettle of their young men and women and this practice went on for centuries without serious internecine warfare.

She then tells us about the Fianna, who as wandering mercenary bandsm perhaps typified the Celtic ideal better than anyone by saying:

My favorite of the ancient Celts were the warriors of the Irish Fianna who were fierce mercenaries with the hearts of poets. In fact, one of the requirements to be part of the Fianna was to be a skilled poet. The most famous of these warriors is Fionn mac Cumhail. The king could call upon the Irish Fianna, or Fianna Eireann, in times of conflict. When not fighting, they lived apart from society as hunters in the forest. Mysterious…hmmm. Sounds like rock star material to me.

It’s well worth a read, and you can find it here.

Originally posted 2008-03-27 00:09:42. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

“All three drove furiously towards Cruachan”, photo W H Margetson

The Wonderful Project Gutenberg have added two very interesting titles to their collection. Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race Written by M I Ebbutt and with 51 illustrations, like the one to the left, this book tells stories from the 8th Century onwards. The book also includes a prose version of “The Countess Cathleen”, a play by W B Yeats. The preface says: In refashioning, for the pleasure of readers of the twentieth century, these versions of ancient tales which have given pleasure to story-lovers of all centuries from the eighth onward, I feel that some explanation of my choice is necessary. Men’s conceptions of the heroic change with changing years, and vary with each individual mind; hence it often happens that one person sees in a legend only the central heroism, while another sees only the inartistic details of mediæval life which tend to disguise and warp the heroic quality.

Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2008-05-18 10:19:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: Archaeology.co.uk

Archaeology.co.uk reports that the perception that much of prehistory was relatively peaceful is changing. New research has identified evidence of violent assault in the Neolithic. What does this tell us about Stone Age life as a whole? Forensic archaeologist Martin Smith explains.

Whilst many Neolithic burials have been excavated during the last 150 years, they have received only limited study. Modern analysis of these remains by osteo-archaeologists is revealing shocking evidence for violent assaults involving clubs, axes, and arrowshot about 5,500 years ago.

Recent years have seen growing interest in conflict archaeology. Warfare has gone from being a subject rarely mentioned by archaeologists to one that is widely debated. Current  world events may have something to do with this, but it is also linked to advances in our ability to recognise evidence of violence, and a drive towards new theoretical approaches for making sense of it. Most research of this kind has usually been concerned with more recent periods, but lately consideration is also being given to prehistory. In particular, we now have a growing body of evidence for aggression between groups and individuals during the Neolithic, most of which comes in the form of skeletal injuries. The fact that acts of violence sometimes occurred in this period now seems indisputable. However, assessing what this tells us about Neolithic life as a whole is harder.

Read the full article at archaeology.co.uk

Originally posted 2009-04-25 09:58:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: Travian

After yesterday’s post about the new RPG add-on, Scion, it’s quite a coincidence to discover another game with a strong Celtic connection. This one, called Travian, is played entirely within your browser and allows you to take charge of a Vilage. You can play as either Roman, Gaul or Teuton and as you expand you’ll discover that the world is full of other villages run by other players all over the world. Obviously, lovers of the Celts will play the Gauls but this game allows you to exerience growth, trade and expansion in lots of different ways. I haven’t had a go at it yet, but it does look like fun – sort of a small, browser-based Age of Empires perhaps?

The Romans

The Roman empire is the easiest for newcomers to Travian. Because of their significant social and technological developments, the Romans are the masters of building coordination, and their troops are the Travian elite. Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2009-02-28 09:50:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: bogenfreund

Wales Online reported on the 12th July that the Holy Grail may have rested in Wales, as an academic claimed. Cardiff University folklore expert Dr Juliette Wood,  said theories linking the Grail to Scotland, such as those in Dan Brown’s hit book The Da Vinci Code, were relatively new. The work has sold 60 million copies since 2003 by suggesting Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh may have been the iconic Grail’s home. In her new book Eternal Chalice: The Enduring Legend of the Holy Grail, Dr Wood says Wales’ claims on the ancient relic are far stronger. The Holy Grail, believed to be the cup from which Christ drank at the last supper, is thought to have magical powers.

Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2008-07-25 09:51:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: Dumfries & Galloway

Stone Pages Archaeo News highlighted the discovery of a 3,500 year old spear head for us. They said: A 3,500 year old Bronze Age spearhead has been discovered in a stream in Dumfriesshire (Scotland). The ancient weapon-tip was found in the waters of the Mennock Pass, close to Wanlockhead. It was found wedged in a rock crevice beneath the waters surface. It is believed to date back to between the 15th and 12th century BCE.

The Dumfries and Galloway Standard carried the original article, and they say: Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2008-12-16 09:02:51. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: blogactionday.org

Today is Blog Action Day. So what is Blog Action Day, I hear you ask? Well, I have a good imagination… electronic ears and all that sort of stuff… wibble wibble Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. With such a worthwhile aim we have to be a part of this! We’re not ready for the next podcast, so I’d like to write a little about how we have seen poverty affect the Celts. In particular, one of the great horrors of modern times – the Irish Potato Famine.

Irish Potato Famine

The Irish Potato Famine and the Great Hunger was a famine in Ireland which started in 1845, lasted – depending on the region – until 1849 or even 1852 and which led to the death of approximately one million people through starvation and disease; a further million are thought to have emigrated as a result of the famine. Some scholars estimate that the population of Ireland was reduced by 20 to 25 percent.

The proximate cause of the famine was a potato disease commonly known as late blight. Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland – where a third of the population was entirely dependent on the potato for food – was exacerbated by a host of political, social and economic factors which remain the subject of historical debate.

The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland. Its effects permanently changed the island’s demographic, political and cultural landscape. For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory and became a rallying point for various nationalist movements. Modern historians regard it as a dividing line in the Irish historical narrative, referring to the preceding period of Irish history as “pre-Famine.” The fall-out of the famine continued for decades afterwards and Ireland’s population still has not recovered to pre-famine levels. [Wiki]

How did that event affect future generations?

I am no social anthropologist or expert of any kind in social change but even I can see the extreme division between the haves and the have-nots in Ireland at that time produced not only widespread death and hardship, but also emigration. To feed your family you have to have work and 10% of the whole Irish population took to the waves in search of new lives. I live in the UK now probably as a direct result of this disaster of natural and political causes. My life would have been very different had the native Irish had the profits of their own labours rather than it being taken greedy land-owners. Instead of having Irish ancestors, I would have been Irish-born.

Pulled away from the Mother’s Breast

Plains of South Kildare Pic: Wiki

Being forced to emigrate away from your Motherland is like being forced away from the Mother’s breast. The land is your home, your link to your roots, your identity and your Gods. We hear in almost every story that we tell in the Celtic Myth Podshow how the Ancient Celts were intimately related to their environment. There are, of course, reasons other than Poverty for emigration but let’s not go into those now and concentrate on the ludicrous nature of man’s inhumanity to man in keeping his brother in poverty.

Being able to eat a good meal is what I would consider an inalienable right of a human being born to this world. To take that right away from others, often whole cultures, is plain and simply wrong.

75% of the World’s Wealth in the hands of 6% of its People

I saw that statistic on a YouTube video that I, sadly, can’t find now but it brought me up short. I had to stop the video at that point and just reeled at the enormity of that ratio. I’m not personally against wealth or individuals being rewarded for the work that they do and I don’t have answers to solve this vast disparity – but surely there must be some way to look after our species?

What can we do?

The Tibetan Appeal

The poster to the left is advertising a musical evening in aid of the Tibetan Appeal. Again, in Tibet, we see the suffering of families and children as a result of poverty (and other factors).  The Tibet Foundation is using this event to raise money to actually help out. This is real-time and personal – attending events like this is something positive and immediate that we can all do. Click on the poster to see full details. Events like Live Aid helped to Feed the World, but they seem to be losing their potency in the years that followed them. Smaller, more personal immediate events offering continued variety and entertainment would be an excellent way to help support our brethren – but we need more of them.

Please forgive my rant – I don’t normally allow personal views to enter these pages as our site is all about the Ancient Celts and their stories, but Poverty is the ancient enemy that still stalks our halls. Blog Action Day is a superb idea for generating awareness of global issues.

Blog Action Day website

Originally posted 2008-10-15 06:36:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: BBC

The BBC reports that a grant of £2 million is set to revive the national language and heritage centre at Nant Gwrtheyrn in Gwynedd. The money will be used to update the accommodation used by Welsh learners who attend residential courses, and create 27 new jobs. The cafe will also be upgraded to enhance the facilities for conferences and weddings. Around 25,000 people have attended courses at the Nant since it first opened in 1982.

Dr Carl Clowes, the chairman of the trustees, said it was important to upgrade the facilities. He said:

With this money we hope to revive the village by upgrading the facilities.

Deputy first minister Ieuan Wyn Jones said the money was made up of European funding and money from the National Assembly Government, as well as money raised by the Nant itself.

Read the full story at the BBC.

Originally posted 2008-09-04 23:16:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter