Thieves believed to be armed with wire cutters have ransacked a magical tourist attraction for children on Speyside.
Miniature houses crafted from wood to form a fairy village have delighted visitors young and old to Dufftown for the past two years.
However, the rural riverside site has become a target for crime with thieves using wire cutters to snatch a donation box and CCTV cameras funded by locals from the tranquil spot at the weekend.
Dave Brown, who maintains the village with his 14-year-old daughter Elise, revealed that vandals also struck last year by damaging some of the homes and stealing money.
The incident prompted Mr Brown to consider giving up on the project before offers of support from the community persuaded him to keep going.
The craftsman described the most recent blow as a “kick in the teeth” and revealed he had been overwhelmed by more offers of assistance to beat the criminals.
He said: “I was thinking of giving up the village last year but all the messages of support changed my mind.
“The British Legion in Dufftown held a raffle and raised £300 for me to install cameras.
“I didn’t really want to have to do that but I felt it was the only way to deter potential thefts.
“This year had been incident free until the weekend. Whoever did this has taken wire cutters to cut the chain the box was attached to.
“This has been such a rewarding thing to do but I’m sick of feeling like this.”
Mr Brown explained he had emptied the money box at the attraction just days before the theft, which was discovered on Sunday evening, explaining it was likely that just “pennies” were inside.
Since he shared news of the most recent break-in on social media he has been overwhelmed with support, including an offer from a local welder to create a more secure money box.
Mr Brown and has daughter have created several miniature houses for the secluded riverside spot south of Dufftown, near the Giant’s Chair – as well as a life-size recreation for children to step into the fairy world themselves.
The centrepiece of the village this year is a tiny version of the town’s clock tower, which overlooks the rest of the village.
Speyside Glenlivet councillor Louise Laing, who officially opened the attraction for this year’s season, branded the criminals as “mindless”.
She said: “It’s very disappointing. I just don’t get why somebody would think to do something like this.
“It’s an attraction for children that takes a lot of work and a lot of money to put together.
“It’s a really selfish thing to do. It’s not as if it’s an opportunistic thing either because it’s not in the town, it’s out in the country and they would have had to specifically go there to do this and take wire cutters with them. It’s very sad.”
Mr Brown said he intended to report the weekend theft to police.
