'Along the bay of Belhelvie, a whole parish was swallowed up by the shifting sands, and it is still a desolate waste' – entry from Sir Walter Scott's diary, 31 July 1814.

Inspirational Belhelvie?

Although Sir Walter Scott appears to have mistaken the sands of Forvie near Newburgh for a part of Belhelvie, an accident on the once lethal sands of Belhelvie probably did inspire the Scottish author. Many people know that Slains Castle, just north of the parish on the Buchan coast, provided the location for that famous horror dwelling in Transylvania belonging to Count Dracula. How many know about the disappearance of Sir James Lawson of Humbie, a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to King James VI and I (1567-1625), while he was out riding on Belhelvie beach in September 1611, or that it inspired the demise of the Master of Ravenswood at the end of The Bride of Lammermoor? Humbie was swallowed by quicksand, and although his body was found the next day, that of his horse never reappeared.

There are other unexpected connections to Belhelvie which can be found. One of Scotland’s famed painters, John Philip, used the interior of the old Belhelvie kirk for his painting called 'Collection of the offerings in a Scottish kirk'. Philip was an Aberdeen apprentice glazier who lived from 1817-1867, and who was patronised by Lord Panmure (whose family had owned a large portion of Belhelvie lands in the previous centuries). In addition, the parish provided a royal physician to Queen Victoria (1837-1901) in the shape of James Reid, the grandson of Peter Reid of Muirtown whose tombstone can be found in the old Belhelvie kirkyard. He was married to one of Victoria's Maids of Honour, Susan Barin, and later also served King Edward VII (1901-1910). What then is the history of this place which has had such a varied impact on Scottish history?

Belhelvi, Balhaluy, Balhalwies – what’s in a name?

It may be of interest to know that the names Belhelvie and Ardo can be found in more than one location in Scotland. There is a Belhelvie in Perthshire, and Aberdeenshire itself boasts several Ardos, only one of which is in Belhelvie parish. Some of these places may have been confused in earlier publications on the history of land transactions in Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, but it is hoped that we have avoided that mistake here.

The parish of Belhelvie lies in a part of Scotland that once formed the core of the Pictish kingdom, for which no written sources survive. As such the earliest history of the area has been lost forever. However, the very name of the parish, Belhelvie, speaks of a subsequent emergence of Gaelic-speaking people, who dominated the culture in the area as a result of Kenneth Mac Alpin’s unification of the Gaelic kingdom of Dalriada with the Pictish kingdom in the year 842 AD. The Gaelic language then subsumed Pictish as the Gaels moved into the Northeast. Gaelic in turn gave way to Scots and most recently English, and these last two survive today as the two main languages of Belhelvie parish. The several explanations for the derivation of the name of the parish, however, are all of Gaelic origin: from 'mouth of the rivulets', with regard to the seven burns which run through the parish, to 'cattle town', or baile shealbhain (pronounced 'balluh-helvan'), in reference to its primary agricultural commodity. The seven burns flowing in the parish are the Newtyle and Blackdog on the northern and southern boundaries, and the Menie, Orrok, Hopeshill, Eggie and Potterton. Although no one explanation for the name Belhelvie has been determined, it was certainly well established by the middle ages and has varied only in the spelling since then.

The parish of Belhelvie has gone through many incarnations. It is an ancient inhabited area, which has had close ties with the city of Aberdeen for centuries. In medieval times it was a thanage, where a thane, who was more or less equivalent to an earl, presided over the area. Belhelvie then became a barony, and since the eighteenth century it has simply been a local parish within the synod of Aberdeen. In a commercial directory for 1825-6 Belhelvie was described as being 8 miles north of Aberdeen and 114 miles distant from Edinburgh, defining its significance in relation to its proximity to those two cities. Just fifty years later Belhelvie was merely a 'postal district of Aberdeen [where] a portion of the land is under cultivation'. Today it is probably best known as a satellite community of Aberdeen, whose growth resulted from the oil development in the northeast of Scotland, bringing large numbers of new workers to Aberdeen. To accommodate the influx, many new houses have been built in the last thirty years. Between 1970 and 1980 Caledonian Self Build Houses were erected in the parish, and just recently a new estate has been built near the Eventide Home in Balmedie. The communities within Belhelvie – especially Balmedie, Potterton, Whitecairns, Blackdog and of course Belhelvie itself - have become known outwith the parish as 'hamlets' serving Aberdeen's many industries, and have to some degree lost their separate identities from the city. However, a vibrant farming community still thrives in Belhelvie and forms the backbone of the parish.

The modern-day parish does not appear to be significantly different in area to the ancient thanage of Belhelvie. It comprises 30 square miles, which are bounded by the North Sea to the east, Newmachar to the west, Foveran to the north, and the Bridge of Don part of Aberdeen to the south, all within an area known as south Formartine.

As census taking only formally began in the late 18^th century, we do not have definite figures for the population of Belhelvie parish during the earlier period. It is unlikely that much more than a thousand people lived in the area, particularly given that the old parish kirk could accommodate only 550 at its fullest. The population figures for the last two and a half centuries show that Belhelvie parish has enjoyed a relatively stable, albeit a gradually increasing, number of inhabitants.

The most marked increase occurred after 1971, when the population more than doubled. This was a direct result of the discovery of oil in the North Sea. The continued growth in the following decade reflects the relative economic prosperity that Aberdeen and the surrounding area have enjoyed since the arrival of this international commodity.

Belhelvie parish has witnessed many land transactions by various landowners, and for a long time was almost defined by those who lived on and owned the land they held there. Scotland, unlike England, retains a feudal system of land ownership dating back to the 11^th century, where the strength of monarchy was dependent on revenues gained from land. Disputes over 'sasine', or the legal ownership of feudal land, filled many pages in the Aberdeen burgh record books. From royal charters, where kings granted the rights to specific pieces of land, to government forfeiture and the subsequent acquisition of much of Belhelvie by an English buildings company, and innumerable private transactions, there are few areas of the parish that remained long in any one family's possession. Ecclesiastical monopoly on property along with that of the Earls of Comyn who held most of the Northeast was ended after the Wars of Independence (1297-1328). Royal rewards for loyal service to the Crown were introduced in the form of land donations. Later, when new nobility was created during the reign of James VI, land had become a commercial commodity that was eagerly sought after by all who could afford it. The introduction of 'valued rent' in the mid-seventeenth century in particular meant that records came to be kept of persons liable for taxation. Since that time land ownership has fluctuated with the market. Indeed the emigration of many Scots from the late sixteenth century onwards to better social prospects abroad, and their eventual return and land acquisition in Scotland also impacted on Belhelvie parish. Not all of the land was owned by particular individuals. There were also a patches of 'common land' in the area, of which about 562 acres at Blairton were divided in 1768, while the Red Moss of Belhelvie continued in a shared ownership. In the present time about 7% of Aberdeenshire is in public ownership, including 300 acres in Balmedie.

There are two rights of way which cross the former Orrok estate in Belhelvie: one through Boghead, and the other through South Orrok across the A92 through a field on Blairton Farm turning north along the farm road to the old Belhelvie kirk. These are the remnants of earlier heavily trafficked common routes through the parish. Similarly, people have made the journey from Belhelvie into Aberdeen and back again for many years, and there is a long history behind connecting roads between the two areas.

Travelling to and from Belhelvie:

Old maps of Aberdeenshire reveal the different roads and tracks that used to run through the parish. The road north from Aberdeen took a different route to the one that is familiar as the A92 today. Originally it headed from the Brig o' Balgownie onto Balgownie Links and then toward the coast, winding 8 miles along the sands. In 1686 the Aberdeen to Ellon road was widened and mended by Statute labour. According to a military survey from 1747 the road went inland opposite Newtyle and joined an older road from Belhelvie past Balmedie, the old Pettens church, Menie House and Hatterseat, before going through Drums and onward toward Ellon. Just three years later, William Roy drew up a map for the British army. It showed the main road to Ellon running across the old Brig o’ Don, through Scotstown and along a ridge of hills to the left of what is now the B999, going about 300 yards behind the pub at Whitecairns. The road then carried on past Wester Craigie and Hillbrae Inn to Udny. What is now the main Ellon road was still merely a track 'by the Sands' according to Taylor Skinner in 1776.

From 1669 onwards Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Supply had the right to demand money from landowners, cottars and tenants for the maintenance of roads. Whereas turnpikes had been introduced in England during the reign of King Charles II (1649-1685), the issue of turnpikes did not arise in Scotland until 1769. The Turnpike Bill was finally passed in 1795 providing for the levying of funds to create a turnpike from Aberdeen to Ellon and further onto Peterhead and Fraserburgh, which was finally completed in 1799. It was not a universally favoured idea as investors feared they would never recoup their money and that it would further increase the cost of transporting goods. At the time the average spent on building turnpike roads in Buchan was £350 per mile: it cost £250 per mile for the first 5 miles out of Aberdeen, and £315 for the remaining miles to Ellon. There was some difficulty in collecting the money for the road as people subscribed according to their personal interest: those in Belhelvie tended to only be concerned about the stretch of road between the parish and Aberdeen. However all the subscribers were eventually united in the desire for the road to reach Ellon. The first subscribers were Fraser of Fraserfield, Turner of Menie, Still of Millden, Irvine of Drum, Robertson of Foveran, Orrok of Orrok, Skene of Berryhill, Scott of Eggie and the Earl of Aberdeen, with subscriptions ranging from £50 to £1000. After 1802 there were a further 23 subscribers, largely from Peterhead and Fraserburgh, obviously wanting to ensure that the road reached further north.

In June 1799 two toll-bars were erected, one at Belhelvie and the other just south of the bridge over the Ythan at Ellon, and a third toll-bar was opened at the Bridge of Don in November. There was public dissatisfaction with the Belhelvie toll, as it was considered wrongly placed, in such a manner that people could evade the toll by using the old road from Belhelvie kirk to the sands past Blairton and Eggie. On inspection the road was also found to be lacking in several aspects: scarcity of gravel, unauthorised side roads, bridges that needed pointing and railings, collapsed walls, and signage necessary to control traffic. Road building and road improvements are generally easily managed in this era, but in the past they were huge undertakings. Indeed the roads to Peterhead and Fraserburgh were only finished in 1813, and it was not until three years later that the first stagecoach from Aberdeen to Peterhead took the road. By 1826 the new Bridge of Don was in operation with the result that the coastal route to Ellon became the main road north. Reverend Alexander Forsyth noted the two six-mile long turnpike roads that ran through Belhelvie parish in 1840, and the daily passing of three public coaches on them. Financing remained a contentious issue and in 1857 a survey showed that the Ellon to Peterhead and Fraserburgh road was under a debt of £73,000 and £62,000 in unpaid interest. The Aberdeenshire Roads Act of 1865 formally ended the turnpike trusts and established a new body of trustees. The following year the toll gates were dismantled and the age of the turnpike was over.

The Ellon road is a very heavily trafficked road that has been the subject of many debates over issues of safety and the number of accidents. Whereas only three public coaches passed along the two turnpike roads of the parish in the 19^th century, now buses and other vehicles travel regularly through the parish, heading north toward Peterhead and Fraserburgh, or north-west toward Tarves and Fyvie. For several years there has been much speculation and discussion of a proposed ring road, which would cut through a lot of the farmland in Belhelvie near the present dual carriageway to Ellon, but thus far no decision has been made to proceed with it.

The parish terrain:

Although most of Aberdeenshire is renowned for its granite, Belhelvie and the nearby parishes of Ellon and Foveran were covered with reddish clay like old red sandstone. This soil was particularly favourable to the formation of peat, implying that the area was once thickly forested like most of Scotland. The majority of remaining woodlands were felled and cleared during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Replanting was well established by 1900 and about 1/80 of the parish was under wood, largely conifers. However, reforestation was again retarded during the two world wars, which cost the parish many trees again through felling, particularly on approximately 70 acres of the Craigie's part of the Balmedie estate during World War I, and 75 acres of Ardo during World War II.

In the first Statistical Account, from 1793, the land of Belhelvie parish was still described as unfavourable in appearance, consisting largely of heath and stones. There was also a sizeable deposit of serpentine, or Portsoy marble (also known as Verde d'Ecosse) near Millden. Between 1790 and 1840 steady reclamation efforts provided 5000 acres of agricultural land from the moor. The extensive shoreline of sand dunes and marum grass characterising the land between the mouths of the Don and the Ythan rivers gradually becomes a hilly area inland. In fact, this narrow length of land was of great interest to the British Government. It was selected as the most level place to measure a base line of 5 miles and 100 feet, beginning at Tarbathy, or Strathbathie Hill (which is strictly outside the parish) and ending at Leyton, Menie. Thomas Colby visited the Aberdeen area in 1814 looking for a site where he could measure a Scottish baseline for the trigonometrical survey. Colby confirmed that Belhelvie links provided the best location he had seen in Scotland, and in 1817 he returned to spend from May 5th to June 6th that year measuring the land. Each end of the baseline was temporarily marked with a post with a tripod support and an engraved brass plate on the top of the post. Two gun barrels were despatched by sea to Aberdeen later in the year in order to sink them into the sands to replace the posts. The delivery of the guns was delayed to such an extent that by 1820 the original posts had been removed by local landowners in order to build gamekeepers’ lookouts. Although the same baseline could not be re-measured, it is still depicted on Ordnance Survey maps today, and presumably the guns lie there yet.

From royalty and government bodies to authors and painters, Belhelvie parish has had a significant role to play in the history of both Scotland and the British Isles during the last millennium. It is far more than a small rugged portion of the northeast landscape of Scotland. There are connections with the earliest establishment of Christianity in Scotland, with the Vatican, and with Norwegian royalty. In addition the parish had its fair share of domestic upheavals over the centuries: treason, witch-trials, famine, and the politically turbulent times of Covenanting and Jacobite Scotland. By presenting Belhelvie as part of Scotland’s wider history and highlighting specific events of interest, this book will reveal the full and varied history of the parish as known to us in the second millennium.