Commemorative composition about the life and death of John (Ian) Mackinnon, Vaul (1887-1916), by his great-niece Jilly Watson (née Mackinnon Johnstone), Canada, 2017. Includes a photograph and family tree.
Click here to view 2018.10.2
Softback book ‘Deuteroskopia, or a Brief Discourse Concerning the Second Sight, so Called’ by John Frazer, 2011, containing a re-printing of an original pamphlet produced in 1820 by ‘the Reverend Mr John Frazer, late minister of Tiree and Coll, and Dean of the Isles’, reflecting on instances of second sight, including an example from Tiree on page 21.
For an extract see 2006.142.2
Printed email from Archie Johnstone in response to an article about second sight on Tiree, 2015.
Extract: “My father’s mother was a great believer of 2nd sight. In 1916, he awoke and said to his mother that her brother Ian [John] was dead. She immediately went into mourning. Eight weeks later it was confirmed that he had been killed in action. The family home was no. 6 in Upper Vaul. Father was born in 1899 … His mother was Mary Flora Mackinnon and she married Thomas Johnstone and lived in Chapelhall. They had 4 children: Catherine Tommy Archie and Maxwell.”
Softback book ‘Strange Things’ by John L Campbell and Trevor H Hall, 2006. The story of Father Allan McDonald, Ada Goodrich Freer and the Society for Psychical Research’s enquiry into Highland second sight.
Article in Gaelic `Taibhsearachd na Ruighe / Seer of the Reef` about Iain MacAilein’s premonitions. Written by Gordon Donald of Vaul and published in the Ossian magazine in 1982. See page 41.
Click here to view 2010.53.40
Newspaper article, 1986, “Of seers, witches and ghosts” about 19th century seer John MacLean
Original and photocopy of a newspaper article by Niall M. Brownlie, Barrapol, about John MacLean, Ruaig & Hough, a well known 19th century `seer` of the future who foresaw the first and second world wars, the arrival of the RAF on Tiree, the division of farms into crofts and the disappearance of townships behind Ben Hough (which were buried by wind-blown sand?).
Minidisk recording of Willie MacLean of Balinoe talking to Maggie Campbell in August 2008.
Willie MacLean of Balinoe talks to Maggie Campbell in August 2008 about second sight.
Hardback book `Highland Second Sight` edited by Norman MacRae.
The following extract is a transcription of ‘Frazer of Tiree on the Second-Sight’ from the book.
Frazer of Tiree on the Second-Sight
Second sight, or ‘taibhsearachd’ as it is known in Gaelic, was common on Tiree, as it was in most pre-industrialised societies. People who had the ‘gift’ saw a future event, usually a death, before it happened.
There are many stories of islanders seeing funeral processions over the machair only for the news of a death to follow a few days later. It was said that if someone who did not have second sight touched the arm of someone who did, they too could see the vision.
This excerpt about second sight on Tiree is from a book ‘Deuterosophia’ which was written by the Rev. John Frazer, minister of Coll and Tiree and Dean of the Isles in the 17th century. Re-printed in 2011.
Photocopied newspaper cutting `Of Seers, Witches and Ghosts` by Niall Brownlie.
Article about the prophecies of John MacLean, manager of Hough Farm in the 19th century.
Paperback book `The Gaelic Otherworld` by John Gregorson Campbell edited by Ronald Black.
Based on `Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland` and `Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands` by J G Campbell.
