Abstract
This paper discusses the project to build a crematorium at Inverness in north-east Scotland in the early 1990s. This proved controversial when the project was opposed by the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland who criticized it as ‘a challenge to the Highland way of death’. In discussing the decision-making processes behind the crematorium project, the paper suggests that the Highland way of death was already changing and discusses the contribution of the changing social context.

Keywords
origins, development of cremation, modern Scotland.