A Highland biker made his final journey in a motorcycle hearse at the weekend – in what is believed to be the first funeral of its kind in the West Highlands.
George Blyth’s family decided to give him the send-off he would have chosen, and asked the undertaker to book the unusual vehicle to carry him from his home at Tomonie, Banavie, near Fort William, to Kilmallie Parish Church in Corpach.
The 57-year-old, who died on Monday April 21 after a long illness, loved bikes from an early age, but had been unable to ride in recent years.
Undertaker Scott Greenlees, of John McLellan and Co funeral directors in Fort William, yesterday said: “When I was doing the arrangements for George’s funeral, his family made it very clear that his passion was motorcycles.
“He just absolutely loved bikes and the family said he would have loved that his funeral journey was on a motorbike.
“I think it lifted everybody’s spirits and they remembered George when he was in good health, rather than during his illness.”
Mr Greenlees, who rode pillion on the Triumph motorcycle hearse, said about 250 people attended the funeral, with six people on motorbikes following the hearse in the procession to the church and then on to Kilmallie Cemetery.
The service was conducted by the Rev Richard Corbett, minister of Kilmallie Parish Church.
Mr Corbett yesterday said Mr Blyth was in the Royal Navy for seven years before setting up his own business as a roofer and slater in Lochaber.
He added that, as a roofer, Mr Blyth had no fear of heights and neither did his Jack Russell dog, Meg, who used to join him on the scaffolding.
The minister said: “His main hobby of motorbiking, which he took up at an early age with a Norton Commando, was also not one for the fainthearted.”