The owner of a scenic Aberdeenshire estate has said his land is almost primed for the 2016 season after months of hard work following the ravages of Storm Frank.
And Mike Bruce, proprietor of the Glen Tanar Estate, said Deeside still had plenty to offer tourists despite the devastation caused by the floods as the summer season approaches.
Pathways were washed away and trees downed at the estate, which is home to one of the country’s bastions of native Scots pine and an array of wildlife.
The flooding, which hit the north-east on December 30 and devastated some 307 homes and 60 businesses in Ballater, also washed away seven of the nine Glen Tanar fishing huts along the River Dee.
Mr Bruce said: “I have never seen so much water. I think I existed in my waders for a week. The biggest impact has been on forest tracks where the tracks have run parallel to a river or the river cuts in close to the track.”
He added work to repair the storm and flood damage would be “fully finished fairly shortly”.
And he added: “Investment is happening -on a small, medium and large scale. These are all going to bring more visitors to the area. We’re continuing to invest and move forward.”
Now Mr Bruce is calling for “proper damage assessment” before any conclusions on flood defences can be reached.
He said: “We need to get information about what happened to understand the event better from a variety of angles. We need to take our time.
“With something as complicated as a river catchment, you don’t want to approach that type of decision quickly.”
The secluded Deeside spot was established as an estate in 1869 and covers some 25,000-acres, almost half of which is woodlands.
Mr Bruce pointed to plans for the Potarch Hotel by the Ballogie Estate, the £5million renovation of Douneside House by the MacRobert Trust and the redevelopment of Braemar’s Fife Arms as examples of big things happening in the area.
He added: “We are growing as a business, we continue to be very positive and we are going to find new customers to bring to the area.
“Estates have been trying really quite hard in the background to help with the response and now the recovery.”