I've just had another look at Google Maps, and I think that is indeed the place, though there is a possibility that it isn't. In that area there are clusters of nearby places with extremely similar names, which can cause confusion. For example, not far away is a tiny village called Blainslie, surrounded by farms all called something including the word "Blainslie", and I think that to this day - it certainly used to be true - just about every map in existence has the names muddled up.
It does indeed appear that the "row of cottages" I mentioned seems to be only one dwelling, but on the other hand, this was over 20 years ago, and that cottage is quite oddly proportioned in a long, thin way. It looks as though maybe structural alterations have taken place, and it used to be more than one home but they've been knocked into one. People who commute to Edinburgh often do such things, and maybe the odd characters I mentioned were so close-knit that they all moved out together, so at least two tiny homes were simultaneously up for sale (I remember it as being four, but it was a while ago). Then again, most of the farms in that area look pretty similar, and it's not certain that Google Maps haven't gotten the names a bit jumbled, so it could be the wrong place (though if so, the right place is almost certainly within a mile of it).
But I do think that is very probably the right place. Look at how far it is from the house to the next bend in the road - they all stood in the middle of that road the whole time I was walking that far, as if they wanted to be absolutely sure that I'd gone because they didn't want any witnesses for whatever they planned to do next (possibly involving Edward Woodward). Very creepy indeed!
Oh. by the way, good call on Trainspotting - yes, they probably assumed it was a documentary. Though apart from being a male caucasian, I don't resemble the characters at all. Especially when it comes to anything involving heroin and/or toilets. Personally, for somewhat more logical reasons, I strongly suspect that Straw Dogs is a documentary...
Yes, the Borders are very odd. Part of it is just because nowadays travel is so easy that all the go-getters move to the cities, and you're left with a disproportionate number of individuals who are for whatever reason under-achievers. Even in the time of Sir Walter Scott this was true. According to him, a typical evening's entertainment in the Borders consisted of watching the legendary Black Dwarf (a local mutant who wasn't actually black, just swarthy enough to be blacker than anybody else the pasty locals had ever seen) do his act. Which was that if you bought him enough booze, he'd break the door down. With his head.
But there are some genuinely strange things taking place. I have a story about this location
http://www.ancient-stones.co.uk/borders/041/050/details.htm which I will tell presently. I'd just like to find out first if anybody else has anything to say about this place.