NEWMILNS HISTORICAL Multi-Cache
The Aljos: Building work in the area eventually finished but the contractors left the box buried in a bank of soil. Time to shut down.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is one of a series of caches created for the purpose of introducing geocachers to the rich history, the extensive path network and the general scenic beauty of the Irvine Valley.
The coordinates provided relate ONLY to the start point at the car park behind the Newmilns Parish Church.
There is an Irvine Valley Path Network board in this car park.
You will need paper and pencil.
The cache can be found at N55.36.ABC W004.19.DEF
A short 30 minute walk around the town should provide you with the figures that need to be substituted for the letters ABCDE and F
From the car park head back to the Main St. and turn left. About 100 metres ahead you will see the Town House with its double flight of stairs. It was built in 1739 and served as a council meeting place and courtroom for many years. The bell in the tower pre-dates the building by almost 200 years as it has an inscription 1547. The door below the house next to the milestone was the entrance to the local tolbooth, a prison for minor offenders. The Town House now serves as the office for IVRP, ‘Irvine Valley Regeneration Partnership’.
How far is it to Edinburgh? = G H
From the Townhouse cross Main St. and head east past the Loudoun Arms Hotel. Take the first on your left ‘Castle St.’ immediately after the hotel and as you walk up the hill you will see the old 15th century Keep behind a wall on the left. Further up the street you will find a gravestone embedded in the same wall. In 1685, eight captured covenanters were being held in custody in the Keep before being sent to Glasgow or Edinburgh for trial. The sentence at these trials was usually one of death by hanging. A group of local sympathisers stormed the keep and freed the prisoners but during the skirmish with the guards, John Law was shot and killed.
When was this stone first renewed? = I J K L
Now retrace your steps back downhill to Main St., turn left and head east for approximately 100 mtrs until you come to the newish white buildings of ‘Murdoch Nisbet Court’ almost directly opposite the church.
Murdoch Nisbet (died 1559) was responsible for making the first Scots translation of the Bible. Living in the parish of Loudoun, Ayrshire, Nisbet's work as a notary public brought him into contact with local religious dissidents. He participated in a conventicle where he illicitly conducted readings of his translation. In 1539, Nisbet "digged and built a Vault in the Bottom of his own House" to hide his New Testament manuscript and conventicle activities. It took Murdoch about 20 years to manually transcribe the New Testament and his work was passed on in the Nisbet of Newmilns and Greenholm family for 200 years. Possessing a layman's version of the Bible was punishable by imprisonment or death, and Murdoch's manuscript was passed in secret within the family. John Nisbet the covenanting martyr gave it to his son James Nisbet who was a Sergeant at Arms at Edinburgh Castle. Sergeant James Nisbet had no children and was the last of his family, so he gave Murdoch's manuscript to Sir Alexander Boswell who kept it in his library at Auchinleck. The manuscript was held for a nephew, but he proved unreliable and sold it. Alexander Boswell immediately bought it back and it was kept in his library for 150 years until 1893. Lord Amherst of Hackney placed it at the service of the Scottish Text Society for publication about 1900. Murdoch's original manuscript is now in the British Museum of Rare Books and Manuscripts, where it is found on display in the Bible Room opened in 1938.
When did these buildings receive a Saltire Society Award? = M N O P
Continue east along Main St. past the Morton Hall (town hall) and you will come to the ‘Lady Flora’s School for Girls’ situated behind the war memorial. Lady Flora Hastings was the unmarried daughter of the Earl of Loudoun, and a Lady in Waiting to the young Queen Victoria. Showing symptoms of a swollen stomach, Lady Flora was suspected of being pregnant and although she professed her “innocence”, Queen Victoria treated her very badly. Lady Flora died some months later from a cancerous growth on her liver but her name was never completely cleared. Eventually, the Crown did provide her family with compensation for having sullied her good name and the monies were used to build ‘Lady Flora’s School for Girls’ in her memory. The school is now used as a sheltered housing community.
When was the school built? = Q R S T
You should now be able to substitute the letters with numbers and hopefully arrive at the correct final set of coordinates.
A = G
B = J
C = H
D = (R – P)
E = (S – M)
F = (K – L)
Continue your walk past the left hand side of Lady Flora’s into Kings St. and turn left. Now head uphill for 200 mtrs to the junction with High St. Across from this junction is an entrance through railings to a large tiered open space with a welcoming sign to the Newmilns Dry Ski Slope. This was the site of the Newmilns Junior Secondary School that was demolished following a fire in 1960 and never rebuilt.
The cache is located within this area.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre n fnaqfgbar oybpx ng gur onfr bs n uvtu ergnvavat jnyy
Treasures
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