Bellie
Bellie is a parish in western Banffshire and eastern Morayshire. The greater part of 8,336 acres lies to the north-east in the former county with 4,959 acres to the south-west in the latter. The Morayshire section contains the town of Fochabers while the Banffshire section contains the villages of Auchenhalrig, Bogmoor, Upper and Nether Dallachy and Spey Bay.
The parish is bounded to the north by the Moray Firth, to the east by the Banffshire parishes of Rathven and Keith and to the south by Boharm and west by Speymouth and Urquhart in Morayshire. It has an extreme length from north to south of seven miles and a breadth from east to west of from two to 4½ miles.
The Spey, through a network of channels, flows six miles along all the western, and the Burn of Tynet 5½ miles along the eastern border, while the Burn of Fochabers runs 3½ miles north-westward through the south of the parish, and falls into the Spey at Fochabers.
On April 12 1746, four days before the battle of Culloden, part of Cumberland's army forded the Spey above the old church of St Ninian, 1½ mile north-east of Fochabers. Anciently held by Urquhart Priory, this was the parish church until 1797, when it was translated to the town.
