When the funeral of businessman Johannes Hellinga takes place on Skye next month, there will be a display of loyalty and affection from many locals.
Mr Hellinga, known as the Flying Dutchman, blazed a controversial trail across Scotland over three decades.
As we told in our story following his death, his landowning and business career was punctuated by court appearances and controversy.
Opportunity
But he is still held in high regard by many who knew him on Skye, where he gave tenant crofters the chance to become landowners for 5p an acre.
His friend and one time employee, Donald John Campbell said: “There were two Johannes Hellingas. The one we read about and the one we knew.
“When he came to Skye and offered to sell the crofting land, people were surprised but delighted.
Lauded
“About 99% took up the offer, maybe 200 people and there was even a song written about him.
“I will remember him as a kindly man. I worked for him as a joiner and also went to work on a new build and a farmhouse renovation project in Holland and we were treated very well.”
Johannes Hellinga was born into a family of business people in Smallingerland, Friesland, a few months after the end of the Second World War.
Fortune
When he was still at school he began rearing chickens, moved into veal calves and was said to be a millionaire in his late teens.
His business empire expanded to include two nightclubs in the Netherlands before his move to Easter Ross in the 1970s.
In 1978 Johannes Hellinga bought Waternish Estate, Skye, and quickly became known as a benevolent laird.
Ownership
Mr Campbell said: “Families who had worked the land for generations now became owner occupiers.
“Johannes was not only a generous landlord he was a good employer too, the drive and energy of the man at that time was phenomenal.”
Mr Campbell described him as an astute businessman but perhaps too trusting and naive.
“He was easily led astray. If you told him something was worth X amount of pounds he would believe that and then try to sell it on.
“But I know he was so happy here for a time and a lot of people have remained loyal to him. A lot of people have remained loyal to him and retain fondness for him.
Tribute
“Our thoughts are with his long-term partner Sine (Jean) MacDiarmid at this sad time.
“I expect a good turn out at his funeral at Ardmore cemetery on January 7.”
Mr Campbell later ran the Stein Inn, said to be Skye’s oldest pub, and recalled Johannes Hellinga and fellow Dutchmen loudly conducting business around the fireside before finishing the evening with a lobster dinner.
In recent years, Johannes Hellinga lived at Inverallochy, near Fraserburgh.