When dealing with the death of a loved one, it’s important to find a funeral company that you can trust. At Nicholas O’Hara, we have years of experience organising Dorset funerals and have won awards for our funeral plans. You can depend on us to plan the service that your loved one would have wanted – we’ll make sure that every detail is perfect.

Established in 1974, Nicholas O’Hara has remained a family business with three generations now working for the company. Over the years, our company has grown from one funeral home to three across the county. We pride ourselves as being one of the best independent funeral directors in Dorset and are constantly evolving to cater to new trends in the funeral trade whilst keeping traditional values.

Our services

Our independent funeral directors in Dorset are able to help with a number of different services. Some of the individual services that we offer include:

Dorset burials

Burial is still a popular option – we help to organise many Dorset burials and can help you find the best location. This includes helping clients to find the right burial ground and the right space to meet their loved ones’ preferences and budget. On top of burials in parishes and cemeteries, we are also able to arrange woodland burials. You can even come to us if you’d like to reserve your own burial spot for when you pass away (a growing shortage of burial space can make this worthwhile).

Dorset cremations

It is more popular to be cremated than it is to be buried. We help to organise a lot of Dorset cremations and can help to meet your wishes. There are crematoriums in both Bournemouth & Poole to consider – once you have found the right crematorium for your loved one, we can help you to organise the service itself from the music to the style (will it be religious or non-religious?). We will also help you to decide what to do with the ashes. These could be scattered, buried, taken home or even partially turned into jewellery.

Pre-paid Funeral planning

Our family funeral directors in Dorset don’t just help clients arrange funerals for deceased relatives – we also help those clients wanting to plan their own funeral in advance. Pre-paid funerals have many advantages including allowing you to plan and pay for the funeral you want, as well as taking the burden off of friends and family who may otherwise have to pay for and organise your funeral. All of our pre-paid funeral payments are protected by Golden Charter, so that you can rest assured that nothing will happen to your money were something to happen to our funeral company. We accept multiple forms of payment and are able to accommodate to any changes if you decide to amend your funeral plan.

Bereavement care

We are one of only a few selected funeral homes in the country that is able to offer SAIF bereavement care. Losing a loved one can be one of the biggest challenges that we have to go through and many people require support. We are there for you if you need this support. On top of face-to-face counselling, we offer free phone calls and email support so that you always have someone to turn to.

Why choose us?

There are many reasons to choose Nicholas O’Hara Funeral Directors Ltd.

Firstly, we have a reliable and long standing team of staff. Nicholas O’Hara – the founder after whom the funeral company is named – remains the current managing director of the company. A number of other funeral directors are also employed by our company, who have served with us for years. All of our staff are highly trained and professionally qualified. With our experience and expertise, you can be sure to get professional service.

We also have a silver fleet of Jaguar’s to ensure that your funeral is carried out in style. This include hearses for deceased, limousines for carrying mourners and a private Mercedes ambulance for carrying the deceased initially from their home.

Our three locations spread out across Dorset also allows us to talk to clients from across the county. If you live in Dorset, you won’t have to travel far to talk to us. We enjoy meeting people in person – all of our premises come with 3 Chapels of Rest, family arranging rooms and disabled facilities.

We are also an multi-award-winning funeral company. We’ve won Regional Funeral Planner of the Year four times since 2010 and have also won Blackmore Media’s Family Business of the Year and Excellence in Customer Service. We like to go the extra mile to help our clients and to put ourselves ahead of other Dorset funeral directors.

Get in touch

If you’d like to find out more about our family funeral directors in Dorset, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can call or email us to arrange a meeting where we can over the arrangements you’d like, as well as discussing costs. We’re able to give quotes in writing and can help you to work within a budget.

Our contact page offers more information on where to find each of our three funeral homes as well as how to get in touch.