The Lady Of Lawers

Prophecies from the Scottish Highlands - The Lady of Lawers. In Highland Perthshire, in the village of Lawers, near the banks of Loch Tay, lived a ‘spaewife, ‘or ‘soothsayer,’ a woman believed to have possessed the ability to foretell the future (1640s). In Scottish Folklore, this woman was known as having the gift of the ‘Second Sight.’ The Lady of Lawers who once lived in the house below was the wife of John Stewart, the second son of the Laird of Appin. Her prophecies predicted many ‘social and economic changes in the local area’ and the locals once spoke, ‘with awe of her prophecies.’

One of her many remarkable prophecies was the prediction of the tragedy of the Highland Clearances. She prophesised that: ‘the land will first be sifted then riddled of its people and the homes on Loch Tay shall become so scarce that a cock crowing will not be heard from one to the other, and the jaw of the sheep will drive the plough from the ground.’ The Highland Clearances in the 1830s subsequently reduced the population of Loch Tayside ‘by three thousand to about five hundred with the land being given over to, ‘flocks of sheep.’

A second prediction concerned the local church, the ‘Kirk of Lawers.’

The Lady of Lawers planted an ash-tree at the end of the church
and predicted that, ‘upon the tree reaching to the height of the gable the church would fall.’ True enough in 1833, when the ‘tree reached the height of the kirk it was struck by lightning and destroyed.’

True to the prophecy of the Lady of Lawers, Old Lawers Village, once occupied for over 750 years, and a thriving community that provided a livelihood from farming, fishing and flax milling, now lies abandoned and in ruins. It is believed that she is buried at this site. Some believe that the Lady of Lawers haunts the site of the old village below waiting, ‘for one of her unfulfilled prophecies to come true.’

Research Credits: The Scots Magazine, The Lady of Lawers’
Wee White Hoose - The Lady of Lawers Prophecies from the Highlands (2015)
Scotland Picturesque and Traditional: A Pilgrimage with Staff and Knapsack, George Eyre Todd (1895)