in 1857 and the estates passed to his sisters. His town residence had been Saxe Coburg Hall, Edinburgh. Monkredding, and an equal share of the combined estates, passed to Agnes Miller as the eldest sister. In 1802 her son William Alexander inherited, married the second daughter of Patrick Warner of Ardeer and had a son William, who inherited in 1828. William Alexander, who had lived at Monkcastle, married Anna Maria, second daughter of Admiral Campbell of the Portuguese Navy. William Campbell Miller died unmarried in 1857 and his sisters inherited. Eliza Maria Louisa had married Thomas Miller Walnut of the 74th Highlanders and Alexandrina Georgina Campbell of Monkcastle had married Keith McAlister of Glen-bar, Argyllshire and lived at Monkredding. The family motto was 'Forward' and the crest a lion erect, holding in his paws a cross meline of the second. Industry and transport The monks established a network of tracks that linked their properties, one of which ran via Dalgarven Mill to Monkcastle and onto Craigmill via Craighead. Such tracks were necessary for many reasons, not least the obligation of thirlage, by which tenants had to take their corn to be ground at the mills held by the monks. Minerals Monkcastle fireclay mine Until 1945 the Douglas Firebrick Company Ltd had its works located where the Wilson Car Auction company now trades (2010). A double track narrow gauge railway, working through a gravity driven 'cable and pulleys' system ran from the works to the fireclay mine on the lands of High Monkcastle. The surface of the inclined plane railroad was paved with firebricks, for employees to walk up the tracks to get to the main Dalry to Kilwinning road where they could catch a bus. The small brick structure gave them shelter from the weather, while they waited. Bessie Dunlop of Lynn On 8 November 1576, midwife Bessie Dunlop, resident of Lynne, in Dalry, was accused of sorcery and witchcraft. She answered her accusers that she received information on prophecies or to the whereabouts of lost goods from a Thomas Reid, a former barony officer in Dalry who died at the Battle of Pinkie some 30 years before. She said she first met him while walking between her own house and the yard of Monkcastle, and after a discussion he disappeared through a hole in a wall or dyke, apparently too small for a normal person to pass through. Bessie