Uri Geller unearths Scottish brick below Israeli museum

Spoon-bending illusionist Uri Geller has found a brick, made near a Scottish island he owns, beneath his own museum in Israel.

Archaeologists pulled it from the furnace of the old soap factory in Old Jaffa, Tel Aviv during excavation work.

The brick was emblazoned with the word "Forth" - the trademark of a defunct brickworks in Stirlingshire.

Geller, 77, who owns Lamb Island in the Firth of Forth, said he was "completely freaking out" at the discovery.

He now plans to display the brick in a gold-plated case in the museum.

"When the archaeologist crawled out of the hole with a brick that said Forth on it I said 'This cannot be true, I have an island in the Forth," he told BBC Scotland News.

"What are the odds of finding a brick here in Israel that was made near my island in the Firth of Forth. This is synchronicity."

Geller moved back to his homeland eight years ago after spending 35 years in England with his wife Hanna and two children.

It took four years to renovate the historic building and turn it into Uri Geller Museum.

He leads tours of the building, which contains hundreds of pieces of memorabilia from his career, including items from famous friends including Michael Jackson, Salvador Dali and John Lennon.

The self-proclaimed psychic said the archaeologists were called in after he "got a feeling" there was more to discover under the £6m museum's cobbled floor.

They discovered a furnace and round pot where olive oil was boiled during soap making in the former factory - and the Scottish brick.

Mark Cranston, founder of Scottishbrickhistory.co.uk, said the brick came from the now defunct Roughcastle Firebrick Works in Bonnybridge in Stirlingshire.

"This brick says Forth, which was Roughcastle's trademark. They were running between 1892 and 1964 so it could have been made any time between those dates," he said.

"Israel is a popular place for them to turn up. They would be taken there by ship.

"This is an exciting find. These bricks would be used as a firebrick. Metal buckles under heat so firebricks are used as a bridge between the heat."

Geller bought Lamb Island, off the east coast of Scotland, in 2009. He described it as "a very special place - possibly the most mystical island in the world".

He said: "It is unbelievable that this brick could have come from anywhere in Europe but it comes from Forth in Scotland where my island is. It is mind blowing.

"It is also incredible that it came from under very old stones here in Israel."

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