Scotland, part of the United Kingdom, seems to have more than its fair share of famous and influential men and women for its size and population. The following is a list of some of the best known.
Actors
- Robbie Coltrane
- Sean Connery
- Billy Connolly
- Tom Conti
- Brian Cox
- James Robertson Justice
- Deborah Kerr
- Ewan McGregor
- Alastair Sim
Artists
- Margaret MacDonald
- Robert MacBryde
- Robert Colquhoun
- Dugald MacColl
- James MacGillivray -- sculptor
- Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Business
- David Buick -- Founded the Buick car company
- Andrew Carnegie -- Ruthless steel magnate and death-bed philanthropist
Composers
Engineers and Inventors
- Alexander Graham Bell -- Telephone, National Geographic, Hydrofoil
- John Boyd Dunlop -- Inventor of the modern rubber tyre
- John McAdam inventor of modern road construction
- Charles Macintosh -- patented waterproofing
- James Nasmyth -- inventor, Steam Hammer
- Thomas Telford
- James Watt
Musicians
- Ali Bain fiddler
- Phil Cunningham accordionist
- Donovan
- Sheena Easton
- Roddy Frame songwriter Aztec Camera
- Hamish Henderson folk song collector and writer
- Annie Lennox
- Harry Lauder
- Michael Marra songwriter
- Dougie MacLean contemporary folk songwriter
- Ewan MacColl - folk-singer/songwriter
- Kenneth McKellar
- Jimmy Shand
Philosophers
- David Hume -- Inspired Immanuel Kant
- James McCosh
Rulers, Politicians
- Tony Blair -- UK Prime Minister
- Robert Cunningham-Graham (‘Don Roberto’) aristocrat socialist
- Tom Johnston aka Tam Johnston, post WW2 Secretary of State for Scotland
- Mary I of Scotland also known as Mary, Queen of Scots
- Macbeth -- King on the receiving end of a bad press
- John MacCormick - Nationalist
- Margo MacDonald -- Nationalist
- Ramsay Macdonald -- UK Prime minister
- Robert the Bruce -- Robert 1 of Scotland
- Malcolm Macdonald
- William Wallace a.k.a. Braveheart
Scientists
- James Dewar -- Low temperature physicist, invented the vacuum flask
- Alexander Fleming -- biologist
- Joseph Lister -- surgeon, pioneered antisepsis techniques
- James Hutton -- Put geology on a scientific basis
- James Clerk Maxwell -- thermodynamics and electromagnetic theorist
- John Napier -- mathematician (see logarithms)
- Robert Watson-Watt -- invented radar
- Paraffin Young a.k.a. James Young, James (Paraffin) Young
Sportsmen and -women
- Ken Buchanan world champion boxer
- Jimmy Clark Formula 1 driver
- David Coulthard Formula 1 driver
- Kenny Dalglish footballer
- Alex Ferguson footballer and manager
- Dougal Haston mountaineer
- Benny Lynch boxer
- Hamish MacInnes mountaineer
- Colin MacRae world champion rally driver
- Graham Obree broke world hour record (on a home-made bike)
- Jackie Stewart world champion Formula 1 driver
Theologians
Writers
- James Matthew Barrie -- creator of Peter Pan
- Ian Banks aka Ian M. Banks
- James Boswell
- John Buchan
- Robert Burns
- A.J.Cronin
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- Alasdair Gray
- Kenneth Grahame
- Andrew Lang
- Norman MacCaig -- poet
- Hugh MacDiarmid -- poet
- George Macdonald -- poet, novelist
- Duncan McIntyre -- Gaelic poet, aka Duncan Ban McIntyre
- John Mackail -- classical scholar and writer
- Sorley MacLean -- Scottish Gaelic poet
- William Topaz McGonagall -- poet, novelist
- Alistair MacLean
- A.A. Milne ???
- Ian Rankin -- creator of Inspector Rebus crime novels
- Sir Walter Scott
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Others
- Ian Anderson
- David Byrne
- Thomas Graham
- John Paul Jones -- Admiral of the Russian and American Navies
- Captain Kidd -- Pirate
- David Livingstone -- Explorer, Missionary
- Flora Macdonald -- Jacobite and Empire Loyalist
- Rob Roy MacGregor -- Romantic outlaw
- John James Richard Macleod
- John Muir -- 19th century environmentalist
- Robert Noble
- Allan Pinkerton
- Sir William Ramsay
- John Charles Walsham Reith aka Lord Reith, first Director General of BBC
- James Clark Ross -- Explorer
- Alexander Selkirk inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
- Moira Shearer
- Adam Smith -- Economist, free trade, laisser-faire, division of labour
- Josephine Tey
- Robert William Thomson
See also: List of people by nationality, List of Kings of the Picts