The alternative Gaelic spelling of the term Dunsinane is Dunsinnan, meaning "The hill of ants"; probably a reference to the large number of people it took to build the fortress.

[5] He was admitted as an advocate on 11 March 1755, and in 1758 was appointed joint Commissary Clerk of Edinburgh with Alexander Nairne, a distant relative.

[2] A portrait of Lord Dunsinane, painted by Scottish painter Sir Henry Raeburn (1756–1823), hangs in Parliament Hall, Edinburgh.

[4] The case was salacious even by today's standards, with the main accusers being another Ogilvie brother, Alexander, and his recent bride, Anne Clark.

[7] Anne, prior to her marriage was employed as a house-servant in one of Edinburgh's notorious lewd houses, and Alexander may have harboured a desire to succeed to the estate of Thomas Ogilvie over his brother Patrick.

[4] Katherine purportedly left Edinburgh bound for Dover in a carriage driven by her uncle's clerk, James Bremmer.

One scenario has Katherine entering a convent, a second marrying a Dutch man and having a large family, and yet another has her dying in England at the beginning of the 19th century.

"[2] Nairne was also a friend of James Boswell, the lawyer, diarist, and author, who is best known for the biography of the English literary figure Samuel Johnson.

"[10] When Nairne, who at the time was serving as Sheriff of Perthshire, determined that he had incorrectly found an innocent man guilty of a crime, he privately provided the litigant with the necessary funds to bring the case forward to the Court of Session, where his earlier judgement was reversed.

[11] A new structure, also named Minto House was built on the site in 1878, and in 1927 it was acquired by University of Edinburgh for use at the headquarters for the Department of English and Modern Languages.