About the Awards
The Fletcher of Saltoun Awards were established in 1988 to recognise and celebrate the innovators and entrepreneurs who shape the cultural landscape of Scotland in the fields of Science, Arts and Humanities and Public Life.
2025 Fletcher of Saltoun awards
The 2025 awards were presented at a ceremony in Edinburgh, sponsored by Rathbones.
Those honoured were:
Arts and Humanities: Nicola Benedetti Musician/Festival Director; Stewart Conn Poet/playwright/director
Public Life: Carol Colburn Grigor Philanthropist; Professor Dame Sally Mapstone Scholar/ Principal St Andrews University; Andy Wightman Environmental campaigner
Science: Professor Daniel Smith Psychiatrist
Previous awardees include Sir Chris Hoy, Sir James MacMillan, Professor Lady Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome, ‘Brave’ composer Patrick Doyle and the late Professor Sir Geoff Palmer KT, CD, OBE.
Who was Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1655 –1716) was an accomplished patriotic Scots writer, politician, soldier and Commissioner of the Old Parliament of Scotland. An innovative thinker and intellectual visionary, he was reputed to have had the best private library in Scotland. Born at Saltoun near Pencaitland, he was the son of of Sir Robert Fletcher, the local laird. He was educated locally, and then in Europe. Fletcher inherited the family estate on his father’s death in 1664, and, in 1678, at the age of 25, he was elected to represent Haddingtonshire in the Scottish Parliament.
Twice exiled for being on the wrong side, forfeiting and eventually re-gaining his estates, he turned from politics after the Act of Union in 1707 and devoted the rest of his life to farming and agricultural development in Scotland.
Andrew Fletcher died in September 1716. He had never married and left no known heirs. He is remembered primarily for his patriotic principles, his hot-headedness, and his unwavering opposition to the Union. He produced a number of influential publications, which appeared in the period before Union occurred. His last words were said to have been: “Lord have mercy on my poor country that is so barbarously oppressed.”
