Kirk representatives have joined in tributes to a popular Highland minister who has died after a short illness.

The Rev Grant Bell retired last year but remained activ until very recently when he undertook a locum stint at Wick's Pulteneytown Parish Church.

Mr Bell, who was 67, passed away in the Highland Hospice in Inverness on Saturday evening.

A native of Dornoch, he attended Dornoch Academy, being school captain in 1961.

At 24, he joined the civil service in Fleetwood where he worked for three years. During this period, he was Fleetwood Golf Club champion.

He re-trained as a social worker in Dingwall, during which time he became a Christian, which influenced the rest of life.

He met his wife, Patricia, in Bombay in 1978 while they were working with Operation Mobilisation.

They married in August, 1979, in her home town in Surrey before living in Edinburgh for four years while he trained as a minister at the Free Church Bible College.

After being ordained in 1983, he was minister in Castletown before moving to Killearnen Free Church, on the Black Isle, in 1991.

Seven years later, he left to join the Church of Scotland in 1998 after finding the Free Church's views on public worship incompatible with his own beliefs.

Mr Bell returned to Caithness to become minister of Bower and Watten before moving back to Easter Ross in 2002 to become minister of the Resolis and Urquhart charge.

He retired in October last year to Muir of Ord where he and his wife lived.

Mr Bell subsequently answered the call to serve a six-month stint as locum minister at Pulteneytown.

Church treasurer Kenny Sinclair yesterday said parishioners were shocked to learn of Mr Bell's terminal illness and death.

Mr Sinclair, a bus driver, said: "He last preached at the church about five weeks ago and was looking very healthy.

"He often stayed at the manse from Saturday to Monday so folk got to know him.

"He seemed to really enjoy his time with us and told me that it was the best ministry he had had.

"Grant was very popular, had a great way with the kids and had a rare sense of humour."

The congregation will be represented at the funeral on Saturday.

Hector MacDonald, clerk of the congregational board of Resolis and Urquhart, said Mr Bell had made a major contribution to the life of the church.

He said: "Grant was extremely well liked.

"He was very easy to get on with and always had time for you.

"He will be sorely missed."

Mr Bell is also survived by daughters Sarah and Alison, son David and three grandchildren Emily, Molly and Isaac, as well as his mother, Jessie, and brother David.

His funeral is in Dornoch Free Church tomorrow (Saturday) at 11am.

Interment will then follow at Proncynain Cemetery.