Thank you. What you say confirms what I have read elsewhere. Every book, website and even this forum I have looked at before all but ignore (or run down) anything that is not west coast or the islands. I liken it to norther and eastern Germany, an almost total lack of acknowledgement that they even exist. If nothing else, Fergusson’s book does show that there is something more, too.
Quite nice that Aberdeenshire has avoided the excesses of the NC500 where even the local NE250 https://www.northeast250.com/see-the-route/ manages to avoid most of the inner areas, though the road across the top and through Tomintoul to Cairnwell ski centre is fantastic.