: "Rome was; London is; Edinburgh will be." .....doom for the
entire country of Scotland when . "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
six chimneys off Gairloch House."
"This bleak moor, ere many generations have
passed, shall be stained with the best blood in Scotland. Glad I am that
I will not see that day."......(The battle of Culloden 1745) ........Tthe day will come when the Big Sheep will
overrun the country to its northmost shore"; and: "the clans will become
so effeminate as to flee from their native
hills before an army of sheep"....... (Highland Clearances)...... "the
day will come when fire and water shall run in streams through all the
streets and lanes of Inverness."...... (piped
gas and water Installed in 1829). .........."that the day will come when
there will be a road through the hills of Ross-shire from sea to sea,
and a bridge upon every stream." ........"The
time will come when whisky or dram shops will be so plentiful that one
may be met with almost at the head of every plough furrow.".........."Policemen will become so numerous in
every town that they may be met with at the corner of every street."
........"Travelling merchants" [pedlars and hawkers] "will be so plentiful that a person can scarcely
walk a mile on the public highway without meeting one of them."
"When two false teachers shall come across the
seas who will revolutionise 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,"......"the people will degenerate as their country
improves."
" The day will come when a river in Wester Ross
shall be dried up."......."a Loch above Beauly will burst through its
banks and destroy in its rush a village in its vicinity."........."When Loch Shiel, in Kintail, shall
become so narrow that a man can leap across it, the salmon shall desert
the Loch and the River Shiel."
The heir (or chief) of the Mackenzies will take A
white rook out of the wood, And will take a wife from a music house
(Dancing saloon), With his people against him!
And the heir will be great In deeds and as an
orator, When the Pope in Rome Will be thrown off his throne. Over
opposite Creag-a-Chow Will dwell a diminutive lean tailor, Also Foolish James as the laird, And Wise James as
a measurer. Who will ride without a bridle The wild colt of his choice;
But foolish pride without sense Will put in
the place of the seed of the deer the seed of the goat, And the
beautiful Black Isle will fall Under the management of the fishermen of
Avoch.
"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."
When there shall be two churches in the Parish
of Ferrintosh, And a hand with two thumbs in "I-Stiana," Two bridges at
"Sguideal" (Conan) of the gormandisers, Soldiers will come from "Carr a Chlarsair" (Tarradale) On a
chariot without horse or bridle, Which will leave the "Blar-dubh" (Muir
of Ord) a wilderness, Spilling blood with many
knives; And the raven shall drink his three fulls Of the blood of the
Gael from the Stone of Fionn.
" however unlikely it may now appear, the Island
of Lews will be laid waste by a destructive war, which will continue
till the contending armies, slaughtering each other as they proceed, shall reach Tarbert in Harris. In the Caws
of Tarbert, the retreating host will suddenly halt; an onslaught, led by
a left-handed Macleod, called Donald, son of
Donald, son of Donald, will then be made upon the persuers. The only
weapon in this champion's hands will be a black sooty cabar, taken off a
neighbouring hut; but his intrepidity and
courage will so inspirit the fugitives that they will fight like mighty
men, and overpower their pursuers. The Lews will then enjoy a
long period of repose."
"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 human blood on 'Fionn-bheinn,' three
times a day, for successive days."
"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 terrible conflict."
"A severe conflict will be fought at the (present)
Ardelve market stance, in Lochalsh, when the slaughter will be so
great that the people can cross the ferry over dead men's bodies. The battle will be finally decided by a
powerful man and his five sons, who will come across from the Strath
(the Achamore district)."
"When a holly bush (or tree) shall grow out of
the face of the rock at Torr-a-Chuilinn (Kintail) to a size sufficiently
large to make a shaft for a 'carn slaoid' (sledge-cart), a battle will be fought in the locality."
"One day a black rain will fall on the City of
Aberdeen".
"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 peace 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."