horseback or pack-animals. The first wheeled vehicles to be used in Ayrshire were carts offered gratis to labourers working on Riccarton Bridge in 1726. In 1763 it was till said that no roads existed between Glasgow and Kilmarnock or Kilmarnock and Ayr and the whole traffic was by twelve pack horses, the first of which had a bell around its neck. A mill-wand was the rounded piece of wood acting as an axle with which several people would role a millstone form the quarry to the mill and to permit this the width of some early roads was set at a 'mill-wand breadth'. General Roy's Military Survey map of Scotland (1745–1755) marks the Lambroughton brae road as being part of the 'Post' road from Irvine to Glasgow, therefore giving it some importance as the mails were carried along it. This same road running up from Cunninghamhead was made into a turnpike by the 'Ayr Roads Act of 1767' and the opportunity was taken to move the route away from Townhead of Lambroughton through which it used to run. The date of construction is unclear as the 1775 map doesn't show a new route. The nearest toll house was on the right as the road joins with the Stewarton to Kilmaurs road opposite the site of the old Lainshaw Mill and the Peacockbank toll. The name 'turnpike' originated from the original 'gate' used being just a simple wooden bar attached at one end to a hinge on the supporting post. The hinge allowed it to 'open' or 'turn' This bar looked like the 'pike' used as a weapon in the army at that time and therefore we get 'turnpike'. The term was also used by the military for barriers set up on roads specifically to prevent the passage of horses. In addition to providing better surfaces and more direct routes, the turnpikes settled the confusion of the different lengths given to miles, which varied from 4,854 to nearly . Long miles, short miles, Scotch or Scot's miles (5,928 ft), Irish miles (6,720 ft), etc. all existed. seems to have been an average! Another important point is that when these new toll roads were constructed the turnpike trusts went to a great deal of trouble to improve the route of the new road and these changes could be quite considerable as the old roads tended to go from farm to farm, hardly