Mrs Forrest’s sons described her last night as “unbelievable” and the “nucleus” of their family.
Bill and Steven Forrest said the 86-year-old had travelled the world well into her latter years.
She was born in March 1927 and grew up in a travelling showground based at Vinegar Hill in Glasgow.
Her own father worked as a “fairground steam wagon driver” and she travelled across Scotland as a youngster.
She then settled with her fisherman husband, also Bill, at Girvan on the Ayrshire coast.
In total she had four sons – Bill, John, Steven and Martin.
John died aged 22 in a car accident in the early 1970s.
She also is also survived by six grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
The family moved to the Highlands in the 1970s, taking on the Balavil Arms Hotel at Newtonmore.
Mrs Forrest then moved to nearby Kingussie after her husband died.
However, she was seldom in one place for long – and her sons Bill, now 65, and Steven, 61, described how she had adventures all over the world right
Steven said: “My mum was the nucleus of the family, she was amazing at keeping everybody in contact.
“She travelled extensively around the world on her own. She went up the Yangtze river on her own, she went backpacking, I think coming into her 70s, around Australia and New Zealand.
“We used to get letters from her saying things like ‘I couldn’t do the sky dive today because the weather wasn’t so good’.
“That’s the kind of thing she did, she was just unbelievable and would go off on her own.”
She also owned property in Turkey and went backpacking along the border between the country and Syria.
Bill said: “She would go to places you wouldn’t want to go.”
Steven Forrest added: “She was very family focused right up to her death.
“In her later years she didn’t travel so much. One of the tragic things about the whole thing was that my mum was due to travel down to my son John’s wedding on the Friday and died on the Wednesday.
“I was supposed to meet her at Birmingham at the other end and in fact we ended up on the flight she was supposed to get.”
He added: “She was a very generous person, a very thoughtful person and very family orientated.”
Bill added: “The one thing was she was always first and last on the dance floor, even when she getting older.
“She will be sorely missed I can assure you of that.”