Police were alerted after human remains were discovered in a north-east town earlier this week – in a cemetery.
Officers were called to the Kirkton cemetery in Fraserburgh on Monday after a council worker unearthed the remains in a section of ground which has not yet been allocated for graves.
Detectives and forensic experts sealed off a small area of the burial ground but following detailed examination of the bones officers concluded that the remains were “archaeological” and not connected to any form of criminal activity.
Last night a spokeswoman for the force said: “Police received a concerned call from local authority workers after bones were found at Kirkton Cemetery, Fraserburgh on July 4, 2016.
“Inquiries were carried out and it was established there is no suspicious circumstances and that the bones are archaeological.”
It is understood that the remains may have moved from another plot on the site over time.
Kirkton Cemetery, on the eastern edge of the port town, is an expansion of the former Philorth Church burial ground.
It contains 31 Commonwealth burials from World War I and 30 burials from World War II.
Kirkton also has the grave of Joseph Watt, a Royal Navy reserve who was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1917 for gallantry in a naval engagement in the Strait of Otranto. He died in 1955.
Last year Aberdeenshire Council’s landscape services boss Philip McKay said the current cemetery site has a working capacity of a further 13 years. Land for a new burial ground will be developed “when required”.
