Who said Churchyards are boring?

Come on down to Bellie Churchyard

Saturday 8th August  2009
Between 10am and 4pm

Friends of Bellie Churchyard and members of the Moray Burial Ground Research Group will be on hand to give tours of the Churchyard

They will also be demonstrating the uncovering of buried stones at 11am and 2pm

Refreshments too!!!!

NEWS

N E W S …..

During Phase 1 of the project Baxter’s Highland Village and Bellie churchyard hosted a Graveyard Seminar organised by the Council for Scottish Archaeology, and also a Family History Fair which was attended by interested groups from all over Scotland to share ideas and promote their work in this field.

2008 saw the completion of Phase 2 of the project, with the erection of a beautiful pink granite Celtic cross at the entrance to the churchyard, which was inscribed ‘Bellie Churchyard, Historic Site since 1130’. A most interesting and informative plaque was designed with the help of a local artist, John Tasker of Drybridge, depicting a plan of the churchyard and directing visitors to a number of interesting and notable headstones, surrounded by a splendid assortment of illustrations. This information plaque has now been erected at the entrance to the churchyard. Improvements were also planned to the access roadway at its junction with the Spey Bay road, and additional parking will be made available in this area

This phase of the project also included the launch of our website to try to spread the news about the various works we are doing and to increase involvement from interested parties at home and around the world. A comprehensive planting programme is also planned under the guidance of the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, while Moray Council and the Crown Estate Office continue to co-operate fully in all of these exciting new developments.

On Saturday 8th August 2009 the ‘Friends of Bellie Churchyard’ plan to host an ‘Open Day’ at Bellie Churchyard, during which members of the group will be on hand to answer any queries about their work, and members of the ‘Moray Burial Ground Research Group’ will give advice and information on graveyard research and conservation, and will ‘re-discover’ two or three of the buried tombstones so that visitors are able to see the excellent state of preservation of some of these long-lost monuments. Refreshments will be available and everyone is welcome to come along and see the work which has been undertaken to restore this historic graveyard.

Phase 3 will eventually extend the work of the group to not only care for and conserve the old part of the churchyard, but to attempt to make the new section more welcoming. This new section now has been in existence long enough to have in some cases three generations of Bellie people interred there, and in future years may well become more frequently visited by relatives than the old part. It is the ambition of the group to eventually see the whole churchyard and cemetery site as a place of beauty, peace and tranquility, and maybe to re-create the old Victorian tradition of an afternoon stroll around the graveyard as a relaxing experience, whether or not one had any relatives buried there.