She said she was trained by her "familiar" on how to make and use ointments to heal livestock and people. She was said to have cured and advised various people from poor children to gentry. As a "wise woman" her strange efforts at the time attracted the attention of the law. Her abilities were more akin to today’s current psychics, and with an understanding of medicinal herbs, she was identified in a time of witchcraft hysteria. It resulted in a conviction and the tragic outcome was that she was burnt at the stake. at Castle Hill in Edinburgh in 1576. She is also said to have been burnt at Corsehillmuir, just outside Kilwinning.