Lennon memorial unveiled in Highlands village

A memorial to John Lennon has been unveiled in the village where he spent his childhood holidays.

John Lennon's oldest known surviving relative says the musician would have been "thrilled" at the memorial unveiled in the Highlands village of Durness in Sutherland.

Lennon spent each annual vacation from the age of seven to the age of 15 in the tiny village.

Locals there have just completed work on the John Lennon Memorial which is in the form of a set of three standing stones featuring lyrics from the Beatles track In My Life and including the words "there are places I remember ..."

Lennon, murdered by Mark David Chapman outside the Dakota building in New York in 1980, aged 40, fell in love with Durness and is still fondly remembered by locals.

Stan Parkes, 69, Lennon's cousin who is believed to be his oldest surviving relative, said: "John would have been thrilled with this memorial, even more so than any of the fancy memorials in the airport and hotels in Liverpool - he didn't like official namby-pambyness.

"He just loved Durness and the openness, the wild mountains, the lochs and all the rest of it.

"When he first started off he came up to see us and gave us a demo tape of Love Me Do and we thought it was very good."

Lennon returned to Durness in 1969 with Yoko Ono, his son Julian, and her daughter Kyoko, to show them round.