Moray HER - NJ36SE0005 - ST MARY'S CHURCH, BELLIE

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Main Details

Primary ReferenceNJ36SE0005
NameST MARY'S CHURCH, BELLIE
NRHE Card No.NJ36SE5
NRHE Numlink 16944
HES SM No. NULL
HES LB No. 1538
Site Form Standing Structure
Site Condition Incomplete
Details Burial ground and remains of the old kirk of St Mary's, a chapel-of-ease, dependent on Urquhart Priory before the Reformation, and which later became a Parish Church. The burial ground is walled with rubble that is coped with turf to the west. The church appears to have fallen out of use and became ruinous after a new parish church, Bellie Kirk, was built in nearby Fochabers in 1798 (NJ35NW0020). The surviving fragment is part of the north wall, re-used to house a deeply-carved (but now very weathered) memorial tablet 'to Guilielmus Armand' who died in 1770. The wall appears to be part of a post-Reformation structure. The churchyard was extended in 1929 and in the 1970s. The burial ground has tombstones dating to the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (including a rare cast-iron monument) and is still in use. It is dominated by the classical temple mausoleum of 1825 to Jean Christie, second wife of the fourth Duke of Gordon, and their children (NJ36SE0111). It has twelve unfluted Ionic columns enclosing two small sarcophagi. Also in the kirkyard is a slab of 1663 which records that William Saunders, who lived to 107, served as the first post-Reformation minister for 77 years. There are a number of other fine table tombs, a particularly good series of Victorian uprights in sandstone, and a late (1920s) wall tomb with bronze and marble portrait medallions. It is said to be burying place of Lord Graham, son of Marquis of Montrose, who died at 'Bogs' in 1645 aged 16. Within the graveyard are 11 war graves, three from the First World War, and those of six Canadian airmen killed when their Halifax crashed at Spey Bay in November 1944. The Spey Bay war memorial can also be found in this graveyard (NJ36SE0076). There is a modern extension to the burial ground lying to the south that is not included in the listing. Monumental inscriptions within the churchyard and new cemetery have been recorded by the Moray Burial Ground Research Group between 2003 and 2006
Last Update31/01/2024
Updated Bycpalmer
Compiler 
Date of Compilation 

Google Map for NJ36SE0005

National Grid Reference: NJ 3532 6097



Event Details

Event DateEvent TypeOASIS ID
2003 Survey
2006 Survey

Excavations and Surveys


Artefact and Ecofact

Ecofact

Samples
Palynology
Ecofact Notes

Monument Types

Monument Type 1Monument Type 2Monument Type 3OrderProbability
GRAVEYARDS  H100
MAUSOLEUMS CLASSICALE100
TOMBS TABLEF100
MEMORIALS  G100
GRAVESWORLD WAR I H100
GRAVESWORLD WAR II I100
CHAPELS REMAINS OFA100
CHURCHYARDS  B100
CHURCHESPARISH C100
STONESGRAVE D100
GRAVESWARCOMMONWEALTHJ100