FORMER first minister Alex Salmond has been remembered as not just the political leader who took Scotland “so close to his dream of independence,” but as a dear friend.

Tributes were paid to the 69-year-old at a funeral service on Tuesday following his death in North Macedonia earlier this month.

He had been speaking at a conference in the country when he suffered a heart attack.

Speaking at Salmond’s funeral in Strichen, Aberdeenshire, where Salmond lived, acting Alba leader Kenny MacAskill paid tribute to the man who was Scotland’s first minister between 2007 and 2014.

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MacAskill, who was justice secretary in Salmond’s government, hailed him as “a giant of a man, the leader of our country, the leader of our movement,” before describing him as “an inspiration, a political genius, an orator, debater and communicator without parallel”.

He said Salmond was “the outstanding political figure in Scotland not just of his generation but for generations past and likely for generations to come”.

MacAskill added: “The legacy he bequeathed is all around. From roads and bridges to rights such as free prescriptions and no tuition fees.”

Salmond’s niece Christina Hendry told the service that in the period since his death, “we have felt the grief of a nation, and beyond”.

Speaking at the service at Strichen Parish Church, which was attended only by family and close friends, she added: “For everyone in this room we have felt the loss differently.

“Uncle Alex was an important person to many, but to us he was a husband, a brother, an uncle, a colleague and a dear friend.”

Salmond took the SNP from a party of opposition into government in Scotland with a narrow victory over Labour in the 2007 Holyrood election.

Former UK prime minister David Cameron (Image: Yui Mok/PA)

After his SNP won an unprecedented overall majority in the Scottish Parliament in 2011, then prime minister David Cameron agreed to demands for an independence referendum.

While Scots voted to stay in the UK in the 2014 vote, MacAskill remembered Salmond as “a man who through his lifetime’s efforts restored pride in our nation and took us so close to his dream of independence”.

Speaking about Salmond, who is survived by his wife Moira, he added: “Politics wasn’t a career for him even if he excelled in its arts. He was committed to Scotland and independence, spurning overtures to join other parties.

“But he rejected them all.”

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He said the former first minister “had a dream of what Scotland could be, and a strategy to achieve it,” as he recalled him “building a party which then took office, and which so nearly won the referendum”.

He recalled his time in office after the SNP first won the 2007, saying while Salmond led a team of ministers with no previous experience in government in a minority administration in Holyrood, his “vision and deft handling” had ensured that his government was “recognised even by opponents as credible, capable and competent”.

MacAskill went on to say that under Salmond the SNP had enjoyed “unprecedented electoral success in 2011” with its Holyrood majority “something unlikely ever to be repeated”.

While a “a very public figure,” MacAskill said Salmond had been “fiercely protective of his private life and Moira and the family,” and was a “cherished and loving husband, brother, uncle," as well as a “friend to many”.

After the funeral, conducted by Reverend Ian McEwen, piper Fergus Mutch, who previously worked for Salmond, led a procession to the cemetery at Strichen for a private service.

A public memorial service to remember Salmond will be held at a later date, while tributes will also be paid to him in Holyrood on Wednesday, when a motion of condolence is expected to be held.