Greatest Ever Scot

[macbheatha]

Thomas Muir of Huntershill
&
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun

[Lachlan09]

King Willie - Willie Bauld of the Terrible Trio.

[macbheatha]

Thomas Muir celebrated in song by Dick Gaughan...one of the greatest living Scots exponents of the art.

[denmcdough]

Hmm, difficult question, as there were so many great Scots. My opinion, though, it has to be Sir Walter Scott.

[highlander_Daz]

In terms of saving lives and defeating Hitler- Sir Robert Watson Watt
Sports man Kenny Dalglish / Jinky Johnson or Jim Baxter
musicians: Gordon Duncan
Acting , Sir Sean Connery
Comedy Billy Connolly / Chic Murry
arts Robert Burns
military: Robert the Bruce /Douglas Haig

politics: tricky one steer clear !

[Sketraw]

I agree it's not easy given the number of fields of excellence and impact of various Scots within them.

In 2002, the BBC did a series of programmes upon who was the greatest Briton with 100 people being nominated and championed and then put up for public vote. This was reduced to the top 10 and Sir Winston Churchill was the winner.

The highest placed Scot was Sir Alexander Fleming at #20, William Wallace was at #48, Alexander Graham Bell was #57, Robert the Bruce #74 and Burns and Sir Walter Scott didn't even feature! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons

The vast number of nominations were English though! Only 4 were Welsh!

Even reducing the entry to Scots alone I expect it would not be difficult to find 100 and then seeing them reduced to the top 10. But we don't have the resources of the BBC and who would be the champions for the cause of their favourite?

A bit bias from the BBC considering there are 61 million English and only 5 Million Scots to collect voting results from, I am not surprised the first 19 were non Scots

[Sketraw]

I agree it's not easy given the number of fields of excellence and impact of various Scots within them.

In 2002, the BBC did a series of programmes upon who was the greatest Briton with 100 people being nominated and championed and then put up for public vote. This was reduced to the top 10 and Sir Winston Churchill was the winner.

The highest placed Scot was Sir Alexander Fleming at #20, William Wallace was at #48, Alexander Graham Bell was #57, Robert the Bruce #74 and Burns and Sir Walter Scott didn't even feature! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons

The vast number of nominations were English though! Only 4 were Welsh!

Even reducing the entry to Scots alone I expect it would not be difficult to find 100 and then seeing them reduced to the top 10. But we don't have the resources of the BBC and who would be the champions for the cause of their favourite?

A bit bias from the BBC considering there are 61 million English and only 5 Million Scots to collect voting results from, I am not surprised the first 19 were non Scots

[ThistleDown]

"...who was the greatest ever Scot."

David Hume
Adam Smith
Robert Burns
James VI
Compton Mackenzie
Hugh MacDiarmid

in no particular order.

[macwilkin]

Seamus Mor/Hamish Henderson.

[Mike_Oettle]

Well, you have all contributed to a significant list of great Scots, and I would not venture to name “the greatest”.
But I would offer a few more names: John Logie Baird, who invented television, and who lived in South Africa for a while.
Andrew Geddes Bain and his son Thomas, the greatest road builders that 19th-century South Africa was privileged to see.
Charles Mackenzie, Bishop of Central Africa and martyr.
And I would go along with the nomination of David Livingstone. There is a hospital named after him in Port Elizabeth. He stayed at the London Missionary Society’s Bethelsdorp mission station (now part of Port Elizabeth) while getting his wagons ready for the trek to Kuruman.
I would also question the prominence given to Alexander Graham Bell. There are claims that he pinched someone else’s ideas to make the telephone.
Regards,
Mike