We show that non-polar M-plane and A-plane GaN can be grown on LiGaO2 with very high phase purity. The morphology of the GaN surfaces is influenced by the underlying substrate morphology, which exhibits a high abundance of surface scratches. Nevertheless, the root-mean-square roughness of the samples is low, i.e. 2.9 nm for M-plane GaN and 10 nm for A-plane GaN. The predominant defects in the GaN films are threading dislocations and stacking faults. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.