J. F. Campbell Collection > Prophecies of the Brahan seer (Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche)

24 THE PROPHECIES OF THE BRAHAN SEER.
being accomplishedj and people felt uneasy when they
glanced upon the ominous nest, the rent in the wall,
and the crowded congregation, and remembered Coin-
neach's prophecy, as they walked into the church to hear
the Doctor. It so happened one day that the church
was unusually full of people, insomuch that it was found
necessary to connect the ends of the seats with planks,
in order to accommodate them all. Unfortunately, one
of those temporary seats was either too weak, or too
heavily burdened : it snapped in two with a loud report,
and startled the audience. Coinneach Odhar's pro-
phecy flashed across their minds, and a simultaneous
rush was made by the panic-struck congregation to the
door. Many fell, and were trampled underfoot, while
others fainted, being seriously crushed and bruised.
Among a rural population, sayings and doings,
applicable to a particular parish, crop up, and, in after
times, are applied to occurrences in neighbouring pa-
rishes. Having regard to this, may it not be suggested
that, what is current locally in regard to Ferrintosh and
Coinneach's sayings, may only be a transcript of an
event now matter of history in a parish on the northern
side of the Cromarty Firth. We refer to the destruc-
tion of the Abbey Church at Fearn by lightning, Octo-
ber 10, 1742. We have never seen a detailed account
of this sad accident in print, and have no doubt the
reader will be glad to have a graphic description of it
from the pen of Bishop Forbes, the famous author
of the "Jacobite Memoirs," who visited his diocese of
Ross and Caithness in the summer of 1762. This ac-
count is taken from his unpublished MS. Journal, now
the property of the College of Bishops of the Scottish