Saltersyke

Field Visits for recording and photographs, 22 April - 29 September 2008 and March 2011; historical research, January 2009 - February 2011.

The remains of Saltersyke are situated close to the boundary between Braidwood and Eastside farms. The site was originally occupied by a sub-tenant’s house constructed between 1681 and 1688 by John Simpson of Braidwood and although called Saltersyke on the 1st Edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (Edinburghshire, 1852 , sheet 17) the associated Name Book also records an earlier name variant, Satyr Syke, and describes it as a cot house.

The site comprises the stone footings of a rectangular building, terraced into the S face of a gentle slope overlooking the A702 Biggar Road, with an enclosure, c20m square, attached to its NW side. The building which is aligned NE/SW, measures 22.7m x 6m overall and has three compartments, which represent at least two separate building phases. The latest phase at the E end consists of two equal sized compartments with rubble and mortar walls standing up to three courses high in the back (NW) wall. The E end is truncated by a farm track but the NE corner is still visible and a 1m gap in the SE (front) wall was probably an entrance into the E-most compartment. The W (central) compartment probably had a similar entrance because there is no internal access between the two, but fallen masonry and grass obscure this; collapse in the middle of the NW (back) wall of this compartment suggests there may have been a small window here. These two compartments are probably the two-unit house recorded at Saltersyke in the 1841 census and last occupied in 1861 (see historical notes, below).

The third compartment extends W from the later building on a slightly different alignment and is characterised by the use of very large boulders, some almost 1m square. It appears considerably earlier than the speculative nineteenth century building phase and may represent the site of the original 17th century house referred to above. The track leading to Eastside Farm cuts across its W end but its NW corner is still visible. A series of large boulders extend at right angles from this corner of the building and continue, with gaps, to the NE corner of the later phase, creating a square enclosure behind the building. A small circular depression about 50m S of the building may be a small kiln and the quarry pits between the building and the Biggar Road referred to in the RCHAMS description of 18 September 1994 may relate to a marl layer recorded by Sir John Clerk c. 1737-54.

Historical Notes

Saltersyke(more correctly Satorsyke) is first mentioned in 1681 when Sir John Clerk of Penicuik gave the tenancy of Braidwood to John Simpson and allowed him 20 marks of his first rent "for building Satorsyke in stone and lyme" (NAS GD18/1193/2). John Simpson had taken over the lands of Braidwood from his mother and the construction of the new house was presumably for her accommodation since there is reference in 1688 to “the good wife sub-tenant of Satorsyke” (NAS GD18/1193/3). Even at this date John Simpson was being reminded to pay his dues and meet obligations to his neighbours (e.g. keeping some of their sheep in his own flock) and when a renewal of the tenancy was arranged in 1695 his father in law, John Frizzell of Easter Bavelaw, was included. Perhaps expansion of the farm was intended because this tenancy refers to the construction of a new barn at Braidwood “to be longer than the old one” and also additional building material “for the houses of Satorsyke”, the sub-tenant in Satorsyke at this date being John (or James) Alexander, a mason in Penicuik. But in 1696 John Simpson died owing debts of nearly 2000 pounds Scots. His goods, which included a large flock of sheep, were sold to John Clerk’s neighbour Henry Boswell of Glencorse for 600 pounds Scots and the Penicuik community decided to forgive all remaining debts still owing to provide future subsistence for the maintenance of his widow and children.

The lands of Braidwood and Satorsyke were re-set to James Porteou,s tenant of the neighbouring farm of Eastside, for a period of 59 years from 1696 (NAS GD18/858) and there is a reference in the document to say that all the houses had been completely repaired. The charter also had some very specific requirements and in addition to liming instructions and maintaining boundaries between Braidwood and Eastside there is an instruction that, if he should “sett off the lands of Satersyke to any who should brew”, the malt had to be ground in Penicuik mill and as a further comment, “... in case the said James shall bring into the said Lands any cotters without consent of Sir John Clerk and the Kirk Session, [he must] maintain them [if they become poor] and answer if they turn villains.”

James Porteous, however, failed to make a success of Braidwood and Sir John Clerk repossessed the lands again in 1733 after three terms of unpaid rent (NAS GD18/858). Although offered a considerable sum of money “by several substantial men [who] offered to take the room” perhaps because of the good marl layer that lay under the road at Satersyke (NAS GD18/741 – Rental Book 1737-1754, 247), he offered “the whole lands of Braidwood and Satersyke and houses” to Alexander Hodge who surrendered it back again on 30 November 1750. John and James Tweedie took over the tenancy under the previous conditions with regard to Satersyke until 1771 when the tenancy passed to Adam Archibald for nineteen years.

Satorsyke remains part of Braidwood today, but nothing more is known of it until its appearance in the 1841 census when the name has become Saltersyke and the house is shown as two units. James Ritchie, a carrier, with wife Marion and family occupied one unit and James Borrowman, a farm labourer, and wife Christina (daughter of James Ritchie) lived next door. James Ritchie must have been quite an impressive figure because he was still remembered when Will Grant described “Ritchie the Carrier” as “a local worthy” in his book ‘The Call of the Pentlands’ in 1927. However Grant’s comment that he was the last inhabitant is not quite true because the 1861 census shows that both wives outlived their husbands. Christina with three daughters had moved in with her mother (now aged 73) while the other unit was occupied by John Goldie, a labourer and Pensioner from the East India Company. By 1871, however, the house now correctly called Satersyke, was no longer in occupation and the 2nd Edition OS map of 1892 shows it unroofed and a ruin. Today only grass covered foundations remain of a house whose occupation history dates back to the 17th century.

Information from SRP Pentland Hills, September 2011.