Volunteers are hard at work restoring a beloved north-east landmark.
The iconic white stag carved into Mormond Hill, facing towards Fraserburgh, attracts visitors from all over.
Quartz rock was used the create the impressive 240ft long engraving which was built to mark the wedding of the local laird in 1870.
But it has only been cleaned a handful of times since the 1930s, so a group of volunteers decided to spruce it up this summer.
Already more than 50 gorse bushes have been removed by LAM Forestry, while the group painstakingly remove each stone and clear away the growth. They are then replacing the stones upside down so they get bleached by the sun.
About 20 trees will be cut back too, as they are blocking views of the stag.
Doug Simpson, one of the volunteers involved in the project, said: “It is now eight weeks since we made a start on the stag and you would not believe the transformation.
“It has been an immensely popular subject locally and also from further afield via the Mormond Hill Stag Facebook page.
“There has been no shortage of enthusiastic volunteers to do the work, and I estimate we have now put in upwards of 500 hours.
“We have had a mix of nationalities, Polish, Lithuanian and even a lady who came all the way from Australia who had heard about the stag project.
“We have found some beautiful glacial pebbles, made of pure quartz, as is the entire Mormond Hill, which must be hundreds of millions of years old and are beautiful objects in their own right.
“We have encountered frogs, toads and many lizards, large purple beetles and numerous ant nests, lovely butterflies and dragon flies in the forests.
“We have enjoyed the very best of summer weather and it has been incredibly hot up on the hill, this has also made an immense difference to how successful the project has been.”
Mr Simpson said there are no plans to stop the restoration works and that volunteers will carry on “for some time yet”.
LAM Forestry have agreed to weedkill the area every year in the hope it will keep the stag in good order in the future.
There is hope a group of volunteers may also band together with the aim of regular hand cleaning.
