River North Esk

Measured survey compiled by members of the Midlothian Field Group (SH DR RC GW JM ).

Photographs by Julian Hall, a member of the Friends of the Pentlands and and historical research by SRP Pentland Hills.

The remains of Cockrigend farmhouse are situated at about 375m OD on a narrow terrace at the SW end of Cock Rig on the E side of the River North Esk and about 500m NW from the northernmost point of the North Esk Reservoir. The site comprises a large sheepfold and a series of low grass-covered rubble mounds forming several conjoined enclosures. None of these appear to define a building, but the 1st Edition of the OS 6-inch map (Edinburghshire 1853-8, sheet xvii) depicts it as a ruined building with attached enclosure and the associated Name Book describes it as the ruin of a dwelling house on the farm of Spittal. Roy’s Military Survey of Scotland, 1747-55, shows a site called “Cock Rigghouse” at exactly the same place that “Cockrigend” is shown. The site does not feature on any modern maps and is not recorded in either the 1841 or 1851 census and since only very slight traces of it are visible on the ground it was probably never a large structure. No other historical information has yet been found for the site.

This site was not visited by the SRP Pentland Hills group during the present project but was identified and surveyed by the Midlothian Field Group (Stratford Halliday, Diana Murray, Robin Callendar, Jane Murray) in 1983 while they were compiling a gazetteer of sites. In the event this particular site was never published so with their permission it has been incorporated into the current SRP Pentland Hills project. Both the site and sheepfold were photographed by Julian Hall, a member of the Friends of the Pentlands who kindly offered his services.

Information from SRP Pentland Hills, September 2011.