Bellie

Little survives of the old parish church at Bellie, located 2 miles north of Fochabers, although its graveyard is preserved.

[1] The site was recorded by the antiquarian George Chalmers in 1799 as "the remains of the Roman encampment overlooking the low ground by the river ... on plan nearly a rectangular parallelogram of 888' by 333', but the W and most of the N sides have been destroyed.

[3] In 1964 two pieces of silver 3 inches (7.6 cm) long and dated to AD51 were found at the rear of the site.

[4] Aerial photography in 1984 recorded another linear cropmark on the site with a well-rounded northern corner, that was excavated in 1986 and revealed the shallow remains of a ditch about 2 metres (6.6 ft) wide.

[4] Study of other aerial photographs taken on the 1970s and 1980s by the University of Cambridge suggests cropmarks provisionally showing the characteristics of a Roman camp lying to the east of Bellie old church and partially covered by an adjacent plantation.