Credits to A E for figuring out that they were National Grid references. I tried MGRS and UTM readings, but they all went into the sea instead.
I have downloaded the NX grid map from Ordnance Survey, and plotted the 9 known locations onto the NX grid map, shown below:
There doesn't appear to be any obvious "cross" on the map, but someone with better understanding may be able to figure out something from this.
The image was generated using the following Mathematica code, where nx was the image.
point = Show[nx,
Graphics[{PointSize[0.010],
Point[{{680*4, 509*4}, {739*4, 622*4}, {644*4, 741*4}, {606*4,
856*4}, {749*4, 474*4}, {977*4, 542*4}, {601*4, 481*4}, {584*4,
604*4}, {866*4, 667*4}}]}]]
![enter image description here](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/M2DNv.jpg)
Due to stupid image size restrictions in the SE uploader, the image was heavily compressed to JPG, and was also shrunk by SE's default image host.
A full resolution PNG is available here on a temporary host. Please do suggest decent anonymous image hosts.
Rewrite on parity solution (Credit to Len for the inspiration that the boundaries can also be used to reduce the size of the solution)
This rewrite aims to include additional information on Kirkcudbrightshire's boundaries, since both Clue 4 and the final whisky location are in Kirkcudbrightshire:
The fourth number of the floor of the mean of the 10 numbers is 4 (9-5).
The 4 least significant digits of the coordinates of 4 must range from 2503 to 3502 in order for the 4th digit in the floor of the mean to be 4.
Therefore, the loci of possible positions of clue 4 have been reduced by parity to 10% of the original solution space, assuming all other positions are correct.
In addition, since both the whiskey point and Answer 4 must be in Kirkcudbrightshire, the answer space is again decreased. An image mask for Kirkcudbrightshire was produced using the image here and fitted onto the main NX map grid, in order to determine whether a given NX grid reference is within Kirkcudbrightshire.
![enter image description here](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/4LBkx.png)
Performing the transform on the mask with this code
ksData = ImageData[ksMask];
isKs[a_, b_] := If[ksData[[b]][[a]] > 0, 0, 1];
whiskeyTransformY[a_, b_] :=
Mod[Floor[(a*1000 + b + 6451505)/10], 1000] + 1;
whiskeyTransformX[a_, b_] := Floor[(a*1000 + b + 6451505)/10000] + 1;
p4Mask = Table[
Table[isKs[x, y]*If[2503 < Mod[(1000 x + y), 10000] < 3502, 1, 0]*
isKs[whiskeyTransformX[x, y], whiskeyTransformY[x, y]], {x, 1,
1000}], {y, 1, 1000}];
Image[p4Mask]
wl = Table[Table[0, {x, 1, 1000}], {y, 1, 1000}];
Table[Table[
If[p4Mask[[y]][[x]] == 1,
wl[[whiskeyTransformY[x, y]]][[whiskeyTransformX[x, y]]] = 1], {x,
1, 1000}], {y, 1, 1000}];
Image[wl]
results in the following images for the loci of A4 and Whiskey Point (white: valid NX, black: invalid NX). Their overlays onto the map are shown:
A4 (full res)
![enter image description here](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/FsM84.jpg)
Whiskey Point (full res)
![enter image description here](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/Xl0fF.jpg)