THE tradition of people having ''second sight'' or prophetic vision is a phenomenon which is going through a revival of interest in Scotland, writes Aine Harrington.
Long before the obsession began with horoscopes, astrological charts, and fortune tellers, there were people within their communities who would be consulted for advice because of their ability to foretell the future. However, some went far beyond that to gain worldwide fame for their prophecies.
In the seventeenth century, Scotland's most famous prophet was Kenneth Mackenzie, better known as Coinneach Odhar, or the Brahan Seer.
His prophecies, many of them in the best seer tradition couched in obscure language and open to several interpretations, have proven uncannily correct.
The Brahan Seer was burned to death in a barrel of tar on the Black Isle by Lady Seaforth after he correctly informed her that her husband was having an affair with a French woman. He is credited by his followers with foretelling the demise of the Seaforth dynasty and the fact that Lord Seaforth's four sons would all die before him.
Other prophecies have included the foretelling of the Highland clearances, the building of the Caledonian Canal, the arrival of railways, and North Sea oil.
Nationalists have seized on one particular prophecy that said when people walk ''dry shod'' from England to France, England and Scotland will be divided again. The opening of the Channel Tunnel and devolution for Scotland would seem to give more credence to this omen.
The world's best-known striker of prophecies was the Frenchman, Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus.
Between 1555 and 1558, he wrote dozens of verses detailing events that were to take place hundreds of years later. The atomic bomb and the rise of Hitler were some of the incidents he is credited with foretelling.
The most famous of the living Scottish Highland mystics is Swein MacDonald, 65, of Ardgay, Sutherland.
Mr MacDonald's successful predictions are said to include the Braer oil tanker disaster, the Falklands conflict, and the divorce of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
He originally worked in Glasgow as a stonemason but when bricks fell on his head, almost killing him, he returned to the family croft.
The blow on the head some 30 years ago left him with a form of tunnel vision but also compensated him with second sight - a gift, he says, that runs in his family.
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