Eligibles 2012: Top 25 men

YOU voted in your thousands, and here they are. Welcome to Scotland’s hottest single men.

View more images on the Eligibles website

1. David Duke, 32, Edinburgh

Social entrepreneur

Growing up in Govan, David Duke describes himself as a wee Del Boy, a streetwise kid who looked after himself. He was cleaning in a nursing home at 15 then, after leaving school, took an apprenticeship as a panel beater. And hated it. De-rusting Transit vans was not his thing.

He went off the rails in his early 20s and was living on the streets when football, which he loved as a child, helped him turn it around. Duke found himself playing at the Homeless World Cup, and from there went on to take an HNC in community work, his football coaching badges and, eventually, set up Street Soccer Scotland in 2009.

Based in Edinburgh, the business - which is run as a social enterprise - is based on Duke’s own experience of using sport to transform his life. It attracts people with mental health issues, dependency issues and the long-term unemployed through the door via football, then uses that to kick start their personal development. Street Soccer Scotland runs courses for JobCentre Plus, local authorities and Lothian and Borders Police. Its ambassador is another Govanite, Sir Alex Ferguson.

Running a thriving social enterprise (eight full-time staff, 15 part-timers) does not leave much time for play but if he does not have a funding proposal to write Duke will be out at a bar listening to music. He has diverse tastes, including Take That, which the lads at work find hilarious. Understandably.

Dream date? We’d jump on a flight to Milan or Florence for a bit of sun, food and wine, and enjoy the sights.

Turn-on? Somebody fun, open-minded, quirky, caring.

Turn-off? Someone with nae chat.

Greatest achievement? I’ve got an honorary doctorate and lots of awards in the cabinet, but the biggest kick is seeing the people I work with turn their lives around. I wish they could get the doctorates. Although my mum does like it.

Single and celebrating? Street Soccer Scotland is now at a stage where I can step back and have some me time, so I would like to meet someone. But not just anyone. I’ve got to feel it.

2. Chris Capaldi, 34, Edinburgh/London

Model and actor

It could all have been so different. Aged 10, Chris Capaldi did a two-week stint with Scottish Ballet in The Nutcracker. Had his dancing school not closed, he might have pursued ballet instead of moving on to swimming and rugby. Rugby was the one that stuck and he went on to play in Scotland’s seven-a-side team, and professionally in New Zealand and Miami.

Back in the UK, working as a personal trainer, modelling was an obvious next step. Appearing on the Dressed to Kilt catwalk in 2005 introduced him to the fashion industry and Scottish Beef picked him as their “face” in 2008.

After three years in New York, Capaldi is back in the UK, splitting his time between London and Edinburgh, pursuing his acting career. Between auditions he still trains a few personal clients. When he goes to the gym alone, he pushes himself to the limit.

Dream date? Somewhere remote with a log fire and nice walks, with someone willing to have fun and not take themselves too seriously.

Turn-on? Nice eyes, a nice smile, confidence.

Turn-off? Fishing for compliments. People who say, ‘I’m a very independent woman, but why are you not buying me a handbag?’

Greatest achievement? Playing rugby for Scotland in Hong Kong in front of 50,000 people.

Single and celebrating? I’m dealing with it, but I need to do something about it.

3. Tom Berry, 34, Glasgow

Surgeon

Tom Berry is very suggestible. He went to Glasgow University because a Big Issue survey identified it as the best place to shop and party in the UK. (And because Oasis were spotted at King Tuts and he assumed he would be next.) He studied medicine because, on George Clooney, chinos and scrubs were such a good look.

He left mid-degree, gave the music industry his best shot, then persuaded Glasgow University to take him back, finally graduating at age 28. Drawn to surgery, he now specialises in breast cancer and breast reconstruction at Monklands Hospital in Lanarkshire.

Much of his free time is taken up with chairing the BMA junior doctors’ committee but he squeezes in a weekly game of seven-a-sides, plus as many whisky tastings as possible. His perfect holiday destination is the kind of place the Foreign Office advises visiting for essential travel only.

Dream date? A private cruise round some Croatian Islands then Damien Rice gigging on the beach. There would also be wine. Good wine.

Turn-on? Someone who loves to travel and is not afraid to get their hands dirty.

Turn-off? A bright orange vanity doll surgically attached to her mobile phone.

Greatest achievement? Not losing the rings at my best friend’s wedding.

Single and celebrating? There’s always a reason to celebrate and have a party.

4. David McKay, 65, Glasgow

Security consultant

David McKay has moved house 27 times in the course of his life. A former lieutenant colonel in the Parachute Regiment, since coming out of the army he has run the WISE group, designed CCTV systems for NTL, taken an undergratuate degree in criminology and a post-graduate one in American history. In between teaching at Glasgow University, he runs security training courses for the NHS, events organisers and the hospitality industry.

To say he is easily bored would be an understatement. He often travels down south to see his three sons (two of whom followed him into the Paras) and two grandchildren. A devoted Partick Thistle fan he is a regular at Firhill but also watches a lot of rugby. McKay cycles around Glasgow’s west end most mornings before ending up in Cafe Rio for a blether with his chums. If his seat is empty, it means he’s chugging around the Kyles of Bute in his new boat.

Dream date? Elle Macpherson or Carol Vorderman would join me on my boat. We’d have a rerr terr before finding a nice wee hotel for some seafood. Then a bit of jigging. I’m all for dancing.

Turn-on? Someone with zing. And great hair.

Turn-off? Brassiness, false nails, too much make-up.

Greatest achievement? My three sons.

Single and celebrating? I enjoy every single minute of every day, but I would like to have a lady chum.

5. Adrian Gomes, 33, Aberdeen

Bar owner

Adrian Gomes got the inspiration for his bar, The Tippling House in Aberdeen’s busy Belmont Street, seven years ago on a trip around North America. He and his business partner came back talking about setting up their own cosy drinking lodge, an underground tavern with a lot of attitude.

It took the best part of a decade but the doors opened last month and the place is jumping. Once customers find the place - via a fake bookshop, down what he describes as nuclear bunker stairs, into a drinking den - they love it.

Starting his dream bar has kept Gomes so busy he has forgotten what he does for fun. He tries to get back to India to visit family every few years - he is half Indian - and can’t get enough of the cities of the US and Canada. Now the bar is open, he hopes to refresh his memory of pleasures closer to home.

Dream date? Dinner and drinks in bars where I know someone, so we’ll get the VIP treatment.

Turn-on? Modesty. Someone well-dressed and understated.

Turn-off? Loud and brash.

Greatest achievement? The Tippling House.

Single and celebrating? There’s an on-off thing going on.

6. Mark Buckland, 25, Glasgow

Publisher

Mark Buckland has brought a punk rock aesthetic to the literary scene. The Glaswegian started publishing house Cargo in 2009, aged 22, with £800 of his own money and it has evolved into Scotland’s first e-publisher and the Margins book and music festival – now the country’s fifth biggest. In three years Buckland has published more than 100 authors, including Michael Morpurgo, Will Self, Roddy Doyle and Julia Donaldson.

Hugely satisfying as all this is – and he also campaigns on mental health issues – it leaves little time for fun. Buckland often finds himself at 4am, staring at contracts while programming an app. Plus, he has no time to read.

Dream date? Dinner in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, sunset at The Bund in Shanghai, booze up at Szimpla in Budapest. Teleportation required.

Turn-on? A woman with no pretension, humour, curiosity and the drinking capacity of a Viking.

Turn-off? Snobbery, condescension, fake tan.

Greatest achievement? Every book, show, project. And with a serious mental illness, having had a relatively normal life feels an achievement.

Single and celebrating? Kind of. It helps me appreciate subtle things in life like crying at random points and the music of The Smiths.

7. JD McLellan, 22, Glasgow

Music producer/DJ

Who would have thought that a boy growing up in Aberfoyle, into extreme heavy metal, would become an electronic music pioneer? Yet it only took one night at Edinburgh’s Bongo Club to convert John Donald McLellan from Morbid Angel and Behemoth to dubstep.

Having played drums, then guitar, it was a quick jump to synthesisers and laptops, and a degree in electrical engineering helps to unpick the physics of the electronic sound waves he creates.

McLellan’s idea of fun is messing around with his instrument collection and concocting new synth sounds. Or teaching himself computer programming so he can operate his stage lights. He suspects he should get out more. n

Dream date? I hate dates. They’re an artificial setting with someone you don’t know. I prefer to wait until I know them better, then pounce.

Turn-on? Someone technically minded and clued up with interests of her own.

Turn-off? Closed-mindedness. Gullibility - I’m very sarcastic.

Greatest achievement? A toss up between playing T in the Park and a live show on Radio 1.

Single and celebrating? I’m not exactly pining for someone. I’m only 22.

8. Darren Randolph, 25, Glasgow

Footballer

Growing up in Dublin, Darren Randolph thought basketball would be his sport. (His American father plays and coaches.) Then he tried football and quite liked it. So he thought he would be a striker until, aged 11, the team goalie was off sick. The coach stuck young Darren between the goalposts and he has been wearing the gloves ever since.

He’s now into his third season with Motherwell, having arrived via Charlton Athletic, Accrington Stanley and Gillingham. He’s done well at Fir Park breaking the club’s record for 15 clean sheets this year, in a 2-0 win over Celtic.

Weather aside - and football is an outdoor job - he is loving Scotland, particularly rating Glasgow’s shops, restaurants and nightlife. Randolph still plays basketball, and snooker. Despite moving to the country that invented it, and working in an industry where it is the must-have hobby, he does not golf.

Dream date? Drinks and dinner in a cosy little spot with Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian.

Turn-on? Being funny and up for a laugh, as I’m quite silly. And a bottom helps.

Turn-off? Bad hair, dirty nails, fake tan.

Greatest achievement? Being where I am in my career today.

Single and celebrating? I’m single and ready to mingle.

9. Mark Kimmett, 31, London

Dancer

Mark Kimmett is just back from a two and a half week tour of Asia with Ballet Rambert. The programme changes with each performance, and the company’s style jumps - literally - between classical ballet and contemporary dance. With Rambert for two and a half years, after a career spent with Scottish Ballet, he loves it.

Being based in London is expensive but great fun and he has become a regular at the Tate Modern and the National Theatre. Rambert’s base, Sadler’s Wells, hosts touring dance companies so he can check out the competition. But he often comes home to see family in Govan when he does his best to cram nephews, nieces and old pals from Scottish Ballet into one crazy weekend.

Dream date? Weather permitting, a picnic in the park with nice food and wine. We could sit and chat without the pressure of a restaurant.

Turn-on? Someone bright, who challenges my views and talks about more than their clothes.

Turn-off? Someone young and unsure of themself.

Greatest achievement? To perform professionally at this level.

Single and celebrating? I’d like to meet someone but I’m not running around desperate.

10. Colin Macfarlane, 36, Edinburgh

Director of Stonewall Scotland

There’s no such thing as a typical day for Colin Macfarlane. As director of Stonewall Scotland, a charity campaigning for equality and justice for the country’s gay community, he might be meeting politicians, teachers or chatting to young lesbians and gay men. The campaign for equal marriage has kept him busy, and there has been a lot of heat around naming Cardinal Keith O’Brien “bigot of the year”.

As a West Wing addict, his first job as a parliamentary researcher for the Lib-Dems was a dream come true. He has also worked at the Disability Rights Commission, later the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Astounded to get the Stonewall job, he is loving it.

With such an intense job, Macfarlane makes sure he lets off steam with pizza and X Factor, running, gym, and plenty of imaginative dancing.

Dream date? A nice dinner with wine, chat and laughter. Daniel Craig would be welcome to join me. Or John Whaite from Great British Bake Off. He makes a mean French fancy.

Turn-on? A smile, ambition, a sense of fun, a view of the world that challenges me.

Turn-off? Arrogance. Cocky is not good.

Greatest achievement? Turning Stonewall Scotland around in a year.

Single and celebrating? It would be nice to have someone to share life with.

11. Scott Ryan Vickers, 35, Glasgow

Actor

On River City, Scott Ryan Vickers plays DC Will Cooper, a troubled, moody gay police officer. In real life he is a cheery heterosexual Mancunian who spends most of his time on set having a carry on with on-screen hubby Gary Lamont.

After a career that started in panto at eight, took in Moulin Rouge at 18 (two shows a night, lots of fishnets) and three years in Chicago, he is relishing a regular part with juicy story lines. He has a homophobic father, corrupt boss, a tendency towards domestic violence: horrific in real life, great for an actor.

Away from Shieldinch he has spent the last two years finishing his first short film, Advance to Contact, about post traumatic stress disorder. Having written, directed and starred in it, he has barely had time to go to the boxing gym or fit in a boot camp class. Although, since moving to Glasgow full-time, he has discovered the restaurants of Finnieston. n

Dream date? A boat trip then dinner at Crabshakk with Mila Kunis.

Turn-on? Someone smart, funny, confident.

Turn-off? Unhealthiness. No fags and chips when you’re with me.

Greatest achievement? Completing Advance to Contact.

Single and celebrating? I’ve been single for a long time now and it would be nice to meet someone.

12. Gordon Aikman, 27, Edinburgh

Campaigner

As of tomorrow, Gordon Aikman has a lot on. The constitutional future of the UK in fact: as director of research at Better Together, he will be providing the evidence to persuade voters to say ‘No’ at the 2014 referendum. It’s a huge job and will, he expects, take over his life for the next two years, but it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity that he was never going to turn down.

After joining the Labour Party at Edinburgh University he has worked across politics, in communications and campaigning as well as policy, which is his favourite. A former gymnast - Aikman represented Scotland as a schoolboy - he combats the late-night coffee and pizza culture of his job with running and working out.

Dream date? Being whisked off my feet and taken somewhere I’ve never been before, preferably with a Michelin star.

Turn-on? Ambition, drive, someone who knows what they want. And if there are no laughs, it’s not going anywhere.

Turn-off? Somebody who lacks passion and takes themselves too seriously.

Greatest achievement? Come 2014, I hope to have helped keep the UK together.

Single and celebrating? Absolutely.

13. Russell Dempster, 30, Glasgow

Artist

Russell Dempster’s parents met at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee as students. He went on to study there and found the lack of distracting nightlife conducive to hard work. After dotting about between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Brooklyn he’s back in Scotland, busy with a mixture of illustrating jobs (his degree was in illustration and print-making; there is an impressive mural in the Living Links primate research centre at Edinburgh Zoo) and his own work for solo and group shows. Left to his own devices, he produces huge figurative pieces in pencil.

When he is not in the studio he may bomb up to Loch Lomond on his fixed gear bike, or explore the wilder fringes of Glasgow’s club scene. Or even just stay in and cook dinner.

Dream date? Something unusual. Although with the right person it doesn’t matter what you do.

Turn-on? Someone I can be myself with.

Turn-off? Someone ignorant, judgemental and shallow.

Greatest achievement? That people want to own my work.

Single and celebrating? I’m not sure I’m celebrating but I’m not complaining.

14. Callum Grant, 29, Elgin

Performer

It is an unusual way to make a living: wearing a bald cap and blue body paint, performing a show that’s a mix of comedy, rock music and physical theatre. And catching balls in the mouth. Callum Grant, who has been part of the Blue Man Group since leaving RSAMD seven years ago, describes it as the strangest job on the planet.

He is currently based in Berlin, having trained in New York and travelled with the show around London, Zurich, Oberhausen, Amsterdam and Tokyo. The latter was his favourite - he misses the food. Being in each city for years at a time means he has time to run his music career along with his performing work. He plays guitar and sings and another Blue Man plays drums.

This international lifestyle has given him a taste for snowboarding, scuba diving and diverse cuisines. Grant is currently perfecting his tempura.

Dream date? Snowboarding in Interlaken, sushi, then a Tom Waits concert.

Turn-on? A good music library.

Turn-off? Complacency.

Greatest achievement? Writing, recording and releasing my first album, Callum’s Whisky Tales, this year.

Single and celebrating? Yes, I enjoy my independence, but I could still be happily surprised.

15. Keith Downie, 30, Glasgow

Sports reporter

Keith Downie talks about football for eight hours a day then goes home and, if he is not watching it on TV, will be at a match. It might be a European Cup tie or the amateur team he manages, Clydebank Athletic, playing Kilsyth Wanderers.

It’s the job he has wanted since he was 10 years old. He used to write stories about an imaginary football team, or play golf tournaments in the back garden, then go inside and file a report. The first non-imaginary match he covered, aged 17, was Peterhead versus Albion Rovers, and he remembers being horribly nervous. Now he interviews Sir Alex Ferguson and goes to Nou Camp - and gets paid for it.

In the closed season he heads off on holiday. Downie has ticked off Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Thailand and Australia recently. South America is next.

Dream date? A football match then out in town afterwards. Preferably with Michelle Keegan.

Turn-on? Blue or green eyes.

Turn-off? Shyness. Ballet pumps.

Greatest achievement? I was the only reporter to cover every game, home and away, of Rangers’ 2008 run in the UEFA Cup.

Single and celebrating? It’s good having no one to answer to, but I’d like to meet someone.

16. Fraser Ferguson, 51, Glasgow

MD of Kube

Long before he set up Kube, a Glasgow-based telecommunications business, Fraser Ferguson had his eye on the comms market. He ran an internet service provider in the 1990s and, after he sold his recruitment agency, he always thought his next business would be in telecommunications. After a few years off when his three children were small, he set up Kube in 2006 and has grown it into a multi-million pound company.

When he is not helping businesses improve their telephone systems, Ferguson will be out at a gig. Stadium or sticky-floored club, he doesn’t mind. Having run a record label with Kevin McDermott, he loves heavy metal, Tom Waits, Girls Aloud (he’s got his tickets for the SECC booked) and David Bowie. His children - now teenagers – refuse to accompany him. Outwith the mosh pit, he is a keen cyclist and a newbie triathlete.

Dream date? We’d start at lunchtime, maybe at a fish restaurant. Then have some drinks, go on to see a band, followed by a club. I’ll happily keep going to breakfast. I hate going to bed.

Turn-on? A knowing smile.

Turn-off? A lady moustache. There’s no need.

Greatest achievement? My children.

Single and celebrating? Certainly am.

17. Pete Allison, 25, Edinburgh

Beer ambassador

In his next life, Pete Allison will be living off milk thistle. His job, as international brand ambassador for Edinburgh brewers Innis & Gunn, involves drinking beer in interesting places. While talking about beer. Often he also has to eat delicious food. He fears he may at some point in the future develop gout.

Since joining the company 18 months ago he has taken the craft brewery message to Canada, Sweden and the US, training sales teams and bar tenders, hosting dinners and attending festivals. His work means he is away from home for two-thirds of the year. Damage-limitation strategies include always packing his trainers, and taking his own Earl Grey tea bags. He insists that, when you have to drink five or six days a week, your biggest treat is a perfect cup of tea.

Dream date? I hate the cinema for dates. We’d go for a wholesome, relaxed meal then on to Bramble for cocktails.

Turn-on? Intelligence, dignity.

Turn-off? A woman who shows off her sexuality.

Greatest achievement? Writing a book for Innis & Gunn in two weeks.

Single and celebrating? I think so. Maybe I’ll sit on the fence for that one.

18. Sam Hildago-Clyne, 19, Edinburgh

Rugby player

It irks Sam Hildago-Clyne that, despite having been born in Granada and living there for three years, he has forgotten all his Spanish. Another language would be useful in a career that has seen him in Dubai, Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong and Japan.

After Merchiston Castle school in Edinburgh Hildago-Clyne went straight into the Scotland Sevens squad and has also played for Scotland’s under-20s.

Still Edinburgh based, he trains with Edinburgh Rugby at Murrayfield. It’s a social squad that also plays tennis, squash and golf. He also squeezes in the odd stint at Hollister in the hope of being cast in one of their advertising campaigns. In the meantime, he folds the sweatshirts.

Dream date? We’d take a drive up to St Andrews for a game of crazy golf, lunch at the Old Course, the beach, then back to Edinburgh for drinks at Bon Vivant in Stockbridge.

Turn-on? Stylish older women.

Turn-off? Fussiness.

Greatest achievement? Touring the world with the Scottish Sevens.

Single and celebrating? I’m still young so I’m not in a huge rush. I’m enjoying myself.

19. Mark Lyken, 39, Glasgow

Artist and musician

One day, Mark Lyken is spray painting Glasgow’s abandoned corners, the next he’s in the recording studio. His artworks toy with scale and time, worlds within worlds, chemical universes at a microscopic level. His music reflects this same shimmering detail.

Growing up between Scotland and South Africa, Mark was always drawing and taping his own radio shows. In 2012 he has released his debut album Bit Riot, collaborated with Camille Lorigo to put his spacey artwork on skirts and spent three months with Aberdeen University marine biologists creating a multimedia installation, The Terrestrial Sea.

Dream date? A booth in the back of a restaurant, good food, vino, hilarity, great chat. Then back to my house boat. I have this fantasy of living on a boat like Quincy, minus the criminal pathology.

Turn-on? Creative folks. Laughter.

Turn-off? Rudeness and pointless negativity.

Greatest achievement? Making a solo album and being made an honorary research fellow by Aberdeen University were good, but pale in comparison to coming runner-up in a Star Wars short story writing competition when I was 11. When you win a small plastic Ewok at such an early age you to take success in your stride.

Single and celebrating? Celebrating certainly.

20. Stephen Duffy, 41, Glasgow

Musician

Growing up in Erskine, Stephen Duffy found pop music scary and alarming. He still does. His bedroom soundtrack was Ted Heath’s big band, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. At Park Mains, which had the best school band in the UK at the time, he was earmarked as a classical singer but he discovered Mel Tormé and there was no looking back.

Duffy now combines a career in broadcasting - he presents BBC Radio Scotland’s Jazz House - with his own performing career, working with the likes of Ian Shaw and David McAlmont. His days of Mack the Knife for the Saturday night dance crowd are over.

Away from the microphone he describes himself as a typical urban gay man, always in the gym lifting heavy things.

Dream date? Somewhere rural and Scottish with a roaring fire, good whisky and someone hunky and tweedy.

Turn-on? Casual masculinity, someone who doesn’t preen too much.

Turn-off? Ignorance, control freakery.

Greatest achievement? Jazz house and its success.

Single and celebrating? I was. A bit bored now.

21. James Mackenzie, 26, Balquihidder

Manager of Monachyle Mhor

Driving through the Trossachs for an interview at Monachyle Mhor, James Mackenzie was pretty sure he did not want a job in what he considered to be the sticks. By the time he had seen around the hotel, restaurant and farm, he was sold.

Having already had a stellar career in hospitality – head sommelier at the Atrium at 22, manager at 24 – it wasn’t long before he was managing Monachlye Mhor. He lives on site, in a flat built into the side of a barn. He still spends two days a week in his native Edinburgh, where he can get a fix of city life and “research” developments in the capital’s bar and restaurant scene. But country life is getting under his skin as he explores the countryside around Balquhidder. Fishing hasn’t been fruitful so far, but he plans to keep trying.

Dream date? A fish supper from the Anstruther Fish Bar, eaten on the beach. I love the Fife coastline. With Mila Kunis, if she fancies it.

Turn-on? Confidence, strong convictions.

Turn off? Phoneys and fakes.

Greatest achievement? Being a restaurant manager at 24.

Single and celebrating? Certainly single. You narrow the market when you place yourself up a single track road in a Scottish glen.

22. Steven Moffat, 40, Edinburgh

Owner of Shhh and entrepreneur

There can be few heterosexual men who know as much about women’s shoes as Steven Moffat. Before starting to sell them in 2011, in Edinburgh boutique Shhh, he studied their design, manufacture, sales and marketing. He even tried them on. Having found the world’s highest-end shoe shops wanting, he set up his own salon where women drink champagne and try on the footwear they always wanted.

Moffat is usually on hand to advise on Kat Maconie’s chunky heels versus Camilla Skovgaard’s sculptural wedges. His other businesses – selling pet food, high chairs and window cleaning supplies online – are not nearly such fun.

A social animal on the charity ball circuit, he also haunts karaoke rooms, but likes to cook for friends too.

Dream date? Drive up north to a little hideaway with amazing food and real fires, maybe Skye or Monachyle Mhor. It’s also refreshing to let her take the lead. I do like to be surprised.

Turn-on? Strong, independent, creative women.

Turn-off? Small-mindedness and negativity.

Greatest achievement? Helping my mum to retire. The crazy things she’s up to bring me joy.

Single and celebrating? I’m waiting for perfect.

23. Gavin Burnett, 36, Fife

Ceramicist and teacher

Making coffee pots was not Gavin Burnett’s dream. However, a talented teacher on his foundation course pushed him claywards. It was, he admits now, the right direction. After a stint teaching at Edinburgh College of Art, Burnett moved to Strathmiglo in Fife, where he has set up a ceramics studio. He teaches part-time at Dollar Academy and part-time at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. Every spare minute is spent working on or selling his own ranges. Unless his students drag him our for a drink in Aberdeen. Or his friends in Edinburgh take him clubbing.

Dream date? Somewhere tropical and deserted.

Turn-on? Nice eyes.

Turn-off? Laziness.

Greatest achievement? Setting up a studio in a beautiful location. And my four-year-old, Evie.

Single and celebrating? I’m newly single. Not celebrating it yet.

24. Steven Cree, 31, Kilmarnock

Actor

For a sporty lad from Kilmarnock, Steven Cree has one campy CV. After a stint on Cabaret in the West End he played Rider, lesbian legend DS Sam Murray’s sidekick in Lip Service. He has recently started recording audio books, in which he voices all the different characters. His career has taken him to London, LA, Sofia and all the glamorous places. Having voiced Young Mackintosh in Brave, Disney brought him back for Maleficent, due out in 2014.

If he’s in town, it’s a kickabout with James McAvoy and Martin Compston, and if Andy Murray’s playing tennis, Cree will cheer him on.

Dream date? Getting a second date is a dream for me. We’d go for a walk and dinner.

Turn-on? Smile, sense of humour, boobs.

Turn-off? Someone who is rude to waiters.

Greatest achievement? Supporting Kilmarnock.

Single and celebrating? Yes, I’ve been single for quite a while and I’m completely cool with that.

25. Jamie McGeechan, 26, Ayr

Musician

It has always been about the music FOR Jamie McGeechan. After an HND from North Glasgow College and a degree in commercial music from the University of the West of Scotland, he emerged as Little Fire with his own song list.

He loves performing and has supported everyone from Joan Armatrading to JLS and appeared on TV and radio. Upcoming gigs include Glasgow’s George Square and, in spring 2013, New York. If he’s not playing music he’s out at a gig, or writing about it for the Ayrshire Post. This rock’n’roll lifestyle means his only form of exercise is walking around with a guitar case.

Dream date? Chinese or Italian meal, some lighthearted conversation, then on to a gig.

Turn-on? Self confidence, a big heart.

Turn-off? Arrogance, madness.

Greatest achievement? Supporting Andrew Roachford at the ABC in Glasgow.

Single and celebrating? Yes! I’m free to party.