Introduction

As so often happened, by the mid-19th century the original kirk of Belhelvie, on the flat ground near the North Sea coast, proved too small for a growing population, and in 1878 a new church was built on higher ground further inland. Burials continued for many years at the old kirkyard, but in the early 1900s burials started in the ground around the new church. In 2021, ANESFHS received an unsolicited gift in the form of a transcription of the Memorial Inscriptions of the new kirkyard, which had been compiled in a notable solo effort by a parishioner, Wishart McBride, who had also provided a schematic plan of the stones. Early in 2022, Helen Taylor and I went over Wishart’s version, and managed to complete some inscriptions which had proved difficult to decipher. There are some new graves in the kirkyard, but most burials now take place in the new cemetery which lies about 100 metres to the south-east, and which is not ibcluded in the present booklet. Gavin Bell MI Co-ordinator