Fochabers is a town in the Parish of Bellie, in Moray, Scotland, 10 miles (16 kilometres) east of the cathedral city of Elgin and located on the east financial institution of the River Spey. 1,728 people reside in the village, which takes pleasure in an abundant music and also cultural history. The village is likewise house to Baxters, the family-run manufacturer of foods. The village owes its presence to Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon (1743-1827). During the late-eighteenth century, throughout the Scottish Knowledge, it was fashionable for landowners to found brand-new towns as well as villages; these can be recognised throughout Scotland, due to the fact that unlike their predecessors they all have straight, wide roads in primarily rectangular designs, a main square, as well as your homes built with their main elevations parallel to the street. The lessees benefited from even more spacious residences, as well as the Duke, it has to be stated, taken advantage of not having the hoi polloi living in hovels right on the doorstep of Gordon Castle. Fochabers was founded in 1776, and also is among the very best instances of an intended town. It is a conservation area, with a lot of the structures in the High Street noted as being of historic or architectural rate of interest, as is Bellie Kirk, the Roman Catholic church St. Mary's Fochabers, which houses works by notable craftsmen, and the Episcopalian church, Gordon Chapel, which flaunts the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite discolored glass in Scotland. Electrical power was offered the town in 1906 by Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond supplied from a small hydro-electric generating terminal integrated in 1905 in the Quarters district on the financial institutions of the fast-flowing Spey. For a time in the mid-twentieth century, Fochabers was the house of three duchesses - Hilda, Duchess of Richmond as well as Gordon; Ivy, Duchess of Portland as well as Helen, Duchess of Northumberland. In between 1893 and also 1966 the village had a train station, Fochabers Town, although after 1931 this was open only to freight. For virtually 3 decades, the people of Fochabers advocated a bypass, as the village is situated on the A96, the only direct route from Aberdeen to Inverness, and also subsequently deals with significant traffic troubles. Building service a bypass for Fochabers and also the adjoining village of Mosstodloch began on 2 February 2010 as well as was finished in January 2012, at an expense of £31,500,000. The project was substantially delayed because of contrast pertaining to the suggested course, and exploration of a Neolithic negotiation on the site of the bypass.