Angus MacAskill was one of the tallest man in history (without growth abnormalities) born in Scotland in 1825. He was officially added to the Guinness Book of Worlds Records in 1981 as the tallest man in recorded history (7ft 9in) and a man with the biggest chest measurements (80 inches!).
Angus MacAskill standing near averagely tall man
MacAskill started growing fast in his adolescence and by the time he turned 22 he stood 7ft 9in (2.36m) with over 500 pounds in bodyweight. Some other interesting measures include his feet (sixteen inches long and eight inches wide), shoulders width (44 inches) and palm width (8 inches).
He started experimenting with the strength he was given and was best known for lifting ship’s anchor weighing over 2,800 pounds to his chest as well as carrying two big 350 pounds barrels under his arms. His pinch strength was extraordinary too, as he could take a 100 pounds weight using only two fingers and hold it at arms length for full ten minutes.
MacAskill with a friend
MacAskill decided to join a circus in 1849 and tour Cuba and the West Indies. Even Queen Victoria heard all about his feats of strength and invited him to perform at Windsor Castle where she proclaimed him the strongest, the tallest and stoutest man to ever enter the palace.
After he came back from a long tour through Europe and North America, MacAskill settled at home and where he opened a general store and bought several real estate holdings. Angus MacAskill died in his sleep in 1863 from brain fever, according to his doctor.
Angus house in his homeland
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My dad, sister, and myself have known for quite a while now that we are related to Angus. Our family has now spread across Canada since then, to New Foundland, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. Our family name is the Scotts.
Me to man Peach last name
When I was about 7 years old I lived in Cambridge, Mass.
Grandmother would tell us of a relative named Angus
MacAskill and that he was the first giant in the Guinness book of world records. She told a story of him being disciplined
and was given the task of going into the woods to chop down a tree for firewood. Well this was when he was a teenager and he dragged back a tree that it would have taken 2 horses to pull and it shocked his family. My grandmother also had a paper article she saved that was written about him. As well as she told a few more stories.
She named a relative of hers that was his cousin. It sure was interesting. I served two tours of Vietnam with the marine corps and I’m blessed to have been given 75 years which I really didn’t believe I was coming back from there alive and the one true God saved me out of combat and eternal life through His only begotten SON YESHUA (Jesus) ????
Very impressive! Merry Christmas!
The tales of his feats of strength have grown to mythic proportions. Even with his prodigious size, he did not train like a modern strongman and as such he would not have been anywhere near as strong as they are. It is ridiculous to think he could do what he is said to have done when you have people like Brian Shaw and Hafthor Bjornsson, arguably in the top 10 strongest men ever, unable to lift even close to the numbers quoted for Angus MacAskill. He was a real man, but he’s turned into a myth nowadays.
Well a barrel of water on each shoulder ,walking from the ship up hill to his store ,freaking stronger than any man unreal strength
Unreal is the right word. It didn’t happen.
How do you know it didn’t happen,Atlas ? The man was a non-pathological SEVEN-NINE,510 POUNDS !!!!! He was almost certainly the strongest man to that point without today’s training methods, and in 2023 would have set strength records impossible to imagine,let alone better.
I could ask you the same. How do you know it did? It seems incredulous to believe he could perform feats of strength so far ahead what current strongmen can do. These modern men train fulltime professionally with the advantages of modern science for training methodology and diet, etc. They are also incredibly large men – Brian Shaw is 6′ 8″ and Hafthor Bjornsson is 6′ 9″ and Sean O’Hagan is 7′ tall and they cannot life anything close to what is claimed for Angus McAskill.
For some reason people love the notion that there were great superhumans in antiquity that could better modern man, but it’s just not true. Professional athletes today are faster, stronger, jump higher, longer and have greater physical performance in every way. The continual toppling of world records is empirical evidence of this fact.
I am not disagreeing that Angus McAskill was indeed very strong, perhaps the strongest man to ever live until that point in history. But he simply couldn’t be as strong as the legends tell. I firmly believe the weights and measures have been inflated over time and as each person tells the story it exaggerates even more – like most great stories of old.
Not to mention today’s-uh- ‘supplements’!
Not to mention today’s-uh- ‘supplements’!