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Digger Man

Digger Man Blog

by Nick Drew  |  Fri 29 Jan 2016

Doosan reaches out to save castle

One of the most enduring images of the aftermath of Storm Frank over the New Year break must be that of Abergeldie Castle, as it was left perched on the washed away banks of the River Dee in Scotland. A brand new Doosan long reach excavator played its part in a dramatic shoring up operation.

Doosan reaches out to save castle
The 16th century Abergeldie Castle is thought to have been built around 1550. This historic A-listed castle is located at Crathie just a stone’s throw away from the Queens Balmoral Estate. In the wake of unprecedented heavy rainfall the River Dee burst its banks and swept away around 60ft of land leaving the historic building in a precarious position. The Baron of Abergeldie, John Gordon and his wife were forced to flee the property and seek refuge with neighbours until the property could be secured or it toppled into the raging river. Thankfully it was saved and work has been ongoing to repair and strengthen the river bank. Fraserburgh based David Smith Plant Hire supplied machinery to perform the shore up and the ideal machine for the task in hand was the company’s brand new Doosan DX300SLR-5 long reach excavator which was out on its first ever job having been supplied by local Doosan dealership Balgownie Ltd. The new Stage IV emission’s compliant Doosan DX300SLR-5 was deployed to place hundreds of tons of stone along the river bank adjacent to the castle to reclaim the river bank, this stone was then followed by large rock armour which should go some way to securing the future of this historic building. With a large enough working platform in front of the building, underpinning works were to be carried out to further strengthen the foundations. We would like to thank Craig Mann of Balgownie Ltd for sending in the photos to support this blog post. The Digger Man Blog is planning a trip north in the coming weeks to check out this and other machines in the area for futures blog posts and articles, a trip I am looking forward to immensely.  

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