Fochabers is a village in the Parish of Bellie, in Moray, Scotland, 10 miles (16 km) east of the cathedral city of Elgin and also situated on the eastern financial institution of the River Spey. 1,728 individuals live in the village, which enjoys a rich music and cultural history. The village is additionally home to Baxters, the family-run producer of foodstuffs. The village owes its presence to Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon (1743-1827). Throughout the late-eighteenth century, throughout the Scottish Enlightenment, it was trendy for landowners to discovered new communities and also villages; these can be acknowledged throughout Scotland, since unlike their precursors they all have right, broad roads in mostly rectangle-shaped formats, a main square, and also the houses built with their major elevations parallel to the street. The renters took advantage of even more sizable houses, and the Duke, it has to be said, gained from not having the hoi polloi living in hovels precisely the front door of Gordon Castle. Fochabers was founded in 1776, and is among the very best instances of a planned village. It is a sanctuary, 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 jobs by noteworthy craftsmen, and also the Episcopalian church, Gordon Chapel, which flaunts the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite stained glass in Scotland. Electricity was offered the town in 1906 by Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond provided from a small hydro-electric creating station built in 1905 in the Quarters district on the banks of the fast-flowing Spey. For a time in the mid-twentieth century, Fochabers was the residence of three duchesses - Hilda, Duchess of Richmond as well as Gordon; Ivy, Duchess of Rose City and Helen, Duchess of Northumberland. In between 1893 and also 1966 the village had a train terminal, Fochabers Community, although after 1931 this was open only to products. For virtually 3 years, the people of Fochabers campaigned for a bypass, as the village is situated on the A96, the only direct route from Aberdeen to Inverness, and subsequently suffers from serious web traffic troubles. Building deal with a bypass for Fochabers as well as the adjoining town of Mosstodloch began on 2 February 2010 and was finished in January 2012, at a price of £31,500,000. The project was dramatically postponed as a result of contrast concerning the proposed course, as well as discovery of a Neolithic settlement on the site of the bypass.