Coinnach Oer

Coinnach Oer, which means Dun Kenneth, was a celebrated man in his
generation. He has been called the Isaiah of the North. The prophecies
of this man are very frequently alluded to and quoted in various parts of
the Highlands; although little is known of the man himself, except in
Ross-shire. He was a small farmer in Strathpeffer, near Dingwall, and
for many years of his life neither exhibited any talents, nor claimed any
intelligence above his fellows. The manner in which he obtained the
prophetic gift was told by himself in the following manner:--

As he was one day at work in the hill casting (digging) peats, he heard a
voice which seemed to call to him out of the air. It commanded him to
dig under a little green knoll which was near, and to gather up the small
white stones which he would discover beneath the turf. The voice
informed him, at the same time, that while he kept these stones in his
possession, he should be endued with the power of supernatural
foreknowledge.

Kenneth, though greatly alarmed at this aerial conversation, followed the
directions of his invisible instructor, and turning up the turf on the
hillock, in a little time discovered the talismans. From that day
forward, the mind of Kenneth was illuminated by gleams of unearthly
light; and he made many predictions, of which the credulity of the
people, and the coincidence of accident, often supplied confirmation; and
he certainly became the most notable of the Highland prophets. The most
remarkable and well known of his vaticinations is the
following:--"Whenever a M'Lean with long hands, a Fraser with a black
spot on his face, a M'Gregor with a black knee, and a club-footed M'Leod
of Raga, shall have existed; whenever there shall have been successively
three M'Donalds of the name of John, and three M'Kinnons of the same
Christian name,--oppressors will appear in the country, and the people
will change their own land for a strange one." All these personages have
appeared since; and it is the common opinion of the peasantry, that the
consummation of the prophecy was fulfilled, when the exaction of the
exorbitant rents reduced the Highlanders to poverty, and the introduction
of the sheep banished the people to America.

Whatever might have been the gift of Kenneth Oer, he does not appear to
have used it with an extraordinary degree of discretion; and the last
time he exercised it, he was very near paying dear for his divination.

On this occasion he happened to be at some high festival of the M'Kenzies
at Castle Braan. One of the guests was so exhilarated by the scene of
gaiety, that he could not forbear an eulogium on the gallantry of the
feast, and the nobleness of the guests. Kenneth, it appears, had no
regard for