Bellabeg and the strath sit on the upper River Don, where the A944 meets Lonach country and the hills keep snow after the coast has gone to rain. This is Donside, not Buchan. DSBM does not have a depot in Strathdon, Alford or Ballater. An honest ETA from 2 Fordafourie Cottages is a long inland run — A90 then west, or via Huntly and the A97 if that is where the truck already is — and weather on the high road can add the better part of an hour. If you are off the A944 on a glen road, say which glen and whether a 4x4 has already failed getting to you.
A944, Bellabeg, Lonach and the glen roads.
The A944 through the strath is the spine; Glenbuchat, the Corgarff direction and the climbs toward the Lecht are the jobs that wreck a glib ETA. Forestry wagons, estate gates and a river that takes the verge in spate all change loading. Call 01224 044741 or GPS 07475 722702 and we will tell you the time we can keep.
When you call from Donside
Registration, A944 vs named glen, whether it rolls, ground (snow, peat, ice), and a photo. If you are at an estate or a holiday cottage, the gate code matters. Mobile signal drops in the strath — send the pin while you have a bar, then call.
Estate, forestry and winter access
No harbour, no industrial park. Estate drives, forestry tracks and passing places on the A944. A low loader may have to wait on the public road while a 4x4 unit reaches the vehicle. We will not drive a trailer onto peat because a satnav said the track was a road.
Breakdown and accident recovery
24/7 from Fraserburgh, with an honest clock: non-runners in Bellabeg, A944 shunts, 4x4s off glen roads, vans that died on a snowed passing place. Local in the sense of Aberdeenshire — not a ten-minute Broch hop, and not long-haul out of the county.
Booked collection
Plan this one. Both postcodes, photos of the drive, height bars: quotes.dsbm.uk. Winter collections may need a farm hardstanding rather than the cottage itself.
Honest ETA from Fraserburgh
Long. Coast truck via A90/A96/A944, or A97 if we are already at Huntly/Rhynie. Snow, ice and a closed high road are the stretch. We would rather arrive late than quote a city time we cannot keep.
IN THE STRATH AND NEED HELP?
Call 01224 044741. We will give a Fraserburgh-honest time, not a local-depot fiction.