Funerals of children killed in canoe accident to be held this week

Funerals: A service for brothers Jamie and Ewen will be held on Friday. Their father's body is yet to be found.

The funerals of three children who died in a canoeing accident in the Scottish Highlands will be held this week.

Brothers Jamie Beaton, 2, and Ewen, 5, died when a canoe overturned in Loch Gairloch near Ullapool on the north-west coast.

Their father, also Ewen, has yet to be found following the accident on August 26, despite intensive police and coastguard searches.

Another child, five-year-old Grace MacKay, died the following day in hospital.

Her father Garry and sister Callie, 8, managed to swim ashore to raise the alarm.

Grace's funeral is on Wednesday in Muir of Ord and a service for the brothers will be held on Friday in Inverness.

Both families thanked the emergency services and the local community for their help on Tuesday.

The Beaton family said in a statement issued by police: "Our focus remains firmly on finding Ewen and bringing him home.

"We would again like to thank everyone for their continued efforts to find him, particularly our dear friends in the local community.

"We would like to thank the police, coastguard, RNLI and all the other emergency services who did everything they could for little Ewen and Jamie."

The MacKay family thanked staff at Broadford Hospital on the Isle of Skye and at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow, where Grace was treated.

"We can't believe what people have done for our family and we thank them all from the bottom of our hearts. We hope that the emergency teams can find Ewen, and the Beaton family is very much in our thoughts at this time."

Related articles

People who read this story also read