You guys are going to beat me with a stick if I say the word "Scottish" again, aren't you?

Well, I'm working on the program for the Highland games, and every year, they put in the same song lyrics, recipes, history, blah blah blah. So I was looking for some different things, and I thought a list of famous Scots would be good. But DAMN I had to look hard to find things about women. Here's my list - mostly men. If you know of any famous Scottish women, please let me know!

Trained at the controversial Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, she worked to improve the quality of medical care for female patients and later founded the Scottish Women's Suffragette Federation to further her cause.
Elsie Inglis

His name is immortalized in a unit of power that is stamped on most light bulbs.
James Watt

This writer set his "Trainspotting" in Edinburgh.
Irvine Welsh

He demonstrated the first color photograph in 1861, the composition of Saturn's rings, explained the motion of molecules, and supervised the stardaization of units of electricity.
James Clerk Maxwell

He invented the famous Sherlock Holmes while sitting in his surgery room with no patients.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

He pioneered antiseptic surgery.
Joseph Lister

Known as "Mother of All the Peoples," she was a missionary born in Aberdeen, a pioneer for women's rights in Africa, and she worked to save twins, who were often killed at birth.
Mary Slessor

He was born in Edinburgh, but his accidental creation of the telephone happened in Boston.
Sir Alexander Graham Bell

She was awarded the honorary title "Conservator of the Scottish Privileges of Veere" by Parliamentary colleagues from the Netherlands and became Mother of the Scottish Parliament in May 1999 as its oldest member upon reconvening the parliament that had been adjourned in 1707.
Dr. Winnie Ewing

His masterpieces include Rob Roy, Kenilworth, Ivanhoe, and Quentin Durward.
Sir Walter Scott

Born in a shed near Edinburgh, she is a Dorset Finn, perhaps the most famous sheep of all time.
Dolly

I'm sorry, but I don't know of any other Scots to include on you list. I just wanted to say that I think it's cool that you included Dolly the sheep on your list! ;o)

ummm...

annie lenox

I can help you with food much more because I lived there once and I loved all the things that most people won't eat.
Haggis is my favorite! Mmmmm so are scotch eggs! And scottish flapjacks! And scottish scones!


maybe you can put a highland "coo" joke in there somewhere.

Mike Meyers is half scottish right??
Then there is always Fat Bastard.....
Really, I don't know any, but I'll look

Minerva McGonagall: Transfiguration professor at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Hee.

For nonfictional people, I'm pretty sure JK Rowling is not Scottish, but she lives in Edinburgh now. (Good taste, that woman has.)
-mystril

http://www.rampantscotland.com/famous/famous.htm
Cool list with some women

I found a bunch for you. I was acutally quite suprised to find out that some of these people were Scotttish. The only woman I found was the Queen Mum.

Others are:
JM Barrie
Robert Burns
Robert Louis Stevenson
... quite a literary country, no?
Andrew Carnegie
Alexander Fleming (discovered penicillin)
Captain Kidd (who I just happen to be related to!)
Charles Mackintosh (invented the rain coat)
John Muir
Adam Smith

Oh, and let's not forget my boyfriend, Ewan McGregor! ;o)

Thanks Daniele! I had several of those on the original, much longer list. I have no idea why I picked the ones I did. Some were eliminated for no good reason, others, like Robert Burns, for being too boring because IMO, the games people talk about him too much. (Like, you know, having a formal dinner for his birthday every year.)

If anybody's curious, here's the next column, Scots in Popular Film.

This Glasgow-born actor is currently known for his part as Peregrin "Pippin" Took in the Lord of the Rings series.
Billy Boyd

He has starred in many popular movies, including Ever After as Prince Henry and Mission Impossible II as Sean Ambrose.
Dougray Scott.

Before he was Obi-Wan Kenobi, this actor was seen as the naked neighbor on "Friends."
Ewan McGregor

Although he found fame as James Bond, in 1953 he placed third in the tall man's division of the Mr. Universe pageant. He has a tattoo that says "Scotland forever."
Sean Connery

This actor was cast as Matthew in Four Weddings and a Funeral and played Jonathan in The Mummy and its sequel.
John Hannah

He got the lead in the Irish drama Angela's Ashes after Irishman Liam Neeson turned it down. He has also been featured in The World Is Not Enough, The Full Monty, and Trainspotting.
Robert Carlyle

He plays Nightcrawler in the X-Men and voiced The Devil in the short-lived "God, the Devil, and Bob."
Alan Cumming

He can be found in Braveheart, Face/Off, and the more recent All About the Benjamins. Tommy Flanagan

This actress got her start in Trainspotting and played Mary Maceachran in Gosford Park.
Kelly Macdonald

He can be found as Killearn in Rob Roy and Argyle Wallace in Braveheart. More recently, he played in The Bourne Identity and will be in the X-men sequel slated for 2003.
Brian Cox

Yet another Trainspotting actress, she was also in Rob Roy, played Jude in Bridget Jones' Diary, and can be seen as Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Shirley Henderson

wuzzled-
I have to ask you, have you ever read the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon?

Alexander Fleming won the nobel prize for discovering penicillin!
Also don't forget Rob Roy MacGregor. He actually existed and did a lot to help some of the poorer people in Scotland.
Robbie Burns the famous poet.
I know that there is a Celtic Scottish Women who helped defeat the Romans in a battle but I can't remember her name.
Another dorky science fact is that Fuschias the plant are named after a Scottish Scientist who researched and classified them.
I am so happy that I am going to meet you in Charleston at this event.
Hopefully there will be other people there to practice my Scottish Gaellic with.
Ha Gae Dearbth!!

lilac - No, but my mother-in-law is mad about them. I may have to get into it. I think my husband has read a little.

marilee - If you're on livejournal, there's a gaelic community there. Charleston's a pretty small games compared to some, but you never know who you'll meet! See you there!

Robert Burns
William Wallace
Robert the Bruce
Boudeccia (sp?) (The woman who fought against the Romans)


...This is why they should cover Scottish history in public school! I'd be able to come up with more!


I'll think of more.

Mary Queen of Scots. Isn't she Scottish? Probably not and I'll look foolish, but OH WELL.

What about Shirley Manson of Garbage? Is she Scottish?

Big Country are scottish.

Not Scottish,
xoe

Not a woman, but a famous Scottish Unitarian is Robert Burns. :)

Not famous, not scottish, but I am an Unitarian Universalist woman! ;) ladyjane

How about: Naomi Mitchison born 1897, author of 80 novels, women rights campaigner and actively lobbied for birth control.

Sheena Easton, Grammy winner, has worked with Prince.

Muriel Spark, author born in edinburgh in 1918, most well known for 'the prime of miss jean brodie'.

Shirley Manson

other famous male Scots you might want to include:

Andrew Carnegie
Jean Paul Jones
The Proclaimers

Hope that was of some help!

i guess renee mackintosh has been covered too much already, right?

i'm really bad. i can only think of music right now.. how about travis, or mogwui or belle and sebastian.

(i'm too tired to spell today. pardon me)
* edit- oh what about Renee mackintosh's wide! Was it Margaret Mackintosh? She was a wonderful painter.

I was going to say Margaret Mackintosh - Charles Rennie Mackintosh's wife. She was an artist (painter) in her own right, but APPARENTLY was also responsible for a lot of that which he was credited with......(which is a lot)...

Other famous inventors.....

Alexander Graham Bell - born in Edinburgh - invented the telephone

John Logie Baird - of Helensburgh - invented the television (yes - you read that right)

John Paul Jones - of Kirkbean - invented the US Navy

Sir Alexander Fleming - of Darvel - invented penecillin

John Boyd Dunlop - of Dreghorn - invented tires

Kirkpatrick Macmillan - of Dumfriesshire - invented the bicycle

There really are too many to mention.....

Mary McDonald -- after Culloden, she is the one that managed to get Prince Charlie Stuart out of the country and across the channel. Disguised as a woman no less!!!!

I'll have to remember the others. There were some Hamilton's, Mary Hamilton being one.

I'm descended from the McDonald's of Glencoe. The ones that were massacred I don't remember when. A few escaped. They were supposed to pledge alliegence to the king and were stopped because of weather and told that it was ok. His soldiers came that night and they fed them, took them out of the cold and housed them and as soon as the family was asleep, the soldiers went through and killed almost all....

English. Civilized my foot.

Chinadoll. I met someone not so long ago who told me that their clan affiliation was Campbell-McDonald. I just sort of stared at them in disbelief. Not someone who was up on their scottish massacres or "Men of Worth" songs, I guess.

Mishymisu, who knows all the words to "Massacre at Glencoe" and what a rip roaring song it is, lets all sing..."Oh cruel as the snow that sweeps Glencoe,
and covers the graves o' Donald
Oh cruel was the foe that raped Glencoe,
and murdered the house of MacDonald"

Oh yeah, that's a song every six year old girl should learn how to memorize. Good times!

I meant Flora McDonald earlier...

Yes, I know Massacre at Glencoe too... There is a great CD by Father Son and Friends (get them at http://www.smoke-fire.com ) called Blue Bonnets and White Cockades.

My Dad wears a kilt to many of our historic events. The first highland games we went to in it I had to teach him the art of getting in and out of the car. Not to mention forcing him to wear sunscreen on the knees that hadn't seen the sun in years!

Claire Grogan, from the 80s band Altered Images - she was also in the fantastic film 'Gregory's Girl', with John Gordon Sinclair.

Scottish bands, past and present:
Orange Juice (Edwyn Collins now solo, famed for 'A Girl Like You')
Belle & Sebastian
Teenage Fanclub
The BMX Bandits
Aztex Camera (Roddy Frame now solo)
The Pastels
The Delgados
V-Twin
The Amphetameanies
The Soup Dragons
Future Pilot AKA
Texas (bleurgh)
Del Amitri

Kx

ChinaDoll - our honored clan and guest this year are Donald/McDonald/McDonell. I was just writing up the history yesterday. I myself married one of those evil Campbells. :-)

If we're talking music...

The Cocteau Twins (the lovely Liz Fraser)
Primal Scream