Funeral pyres used to be the burial of choice for Vikings but they could be making an unlikely comeback.

One company is offering the chance to get cremated outdoors for people who are uncomfortable with traditional church settings.

The company already offers woodland burials, firework celebrations, brass bands and burials at sea but a newly-found remote quarry near Alnwick, Northumberland, has proved to be the perfect setting for a funeral pyre.

Carl Marlow, owner of Go As You Please, in Wallsend and Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, is the first funeral director in the country to offer the service.

Mr Marlow, 37, who started the business after being disappointed at his own mother's funeral, said: "It's about giving people more choice when it comes to funerals.

"We have a very unhealthy attitude towards death. We almost try to hush it up. In the past, funerals were a celebration of someone's life and we need to get back to that.

"Many people today feel uncomfortable with a religious service but they think there's no alternative. I want to change that whole ethos."

Mr Marlow is expecting a backlash but says he is prepared to go to court to defend people's rights to have their loved ones burned on a pyre in the historic tradition which dates back thousands of years.