•
Jim Baikie (1940–2017), Scottish comics artist, who is best known for his work with
Alan Moore on
Skizz •
William Balfour Baikie (1825–1864), explorer and naturalist •
George Mackay Brown (1921–1996), poet, author, playwright •
Kate Brown (b. 1960), 38th governor of Oregon, of partial Orcadian descent •
Mary Brunton (1778–1818), author of
Self-Control,
Discipline, and other novels • Dr.
David Clouston (1871–1948), author and agriculturalist •
J. Storer Clouston (1870–1944), author and historian •
Thomas Clouston (1840–1915), psychiatrist, Superintendent of the
Royal Edinburgh Asylum •
James Copland (1791–1870), physician and prolific medical writer •
Stanley Cursiter (1887–1976), artist •
William Towrie Cutt (1898–1981), author •
Walter Traill Dennison (1826–1894), Orcadian
folklorist •
Kris Drever (b. 1978), folk singer and guitarist •
Magnus Erlendsson (Saint Magnus) (), Earl of Orkney •
John Flett (geologist) (1869–1947) and his son
William Roberts Flett FRSE (1900–1979) also a geologist •
Matthew Forster Heddle (1828–1897), geologist, author of
The Mineralogy of Scotland •
Colonel Henry Halcro Johnston (1856–1939), botanist, physician, rugby union international and Deputy Lieutenant for Orkney •
Lt.Col. James Johnston (1724–1800), early and principal Scottish merchant at Quebec following the fall of New France •
Malcolm Laing (1762–1818), author of the
History of Scotland from the Union of the Crowns to the Union of the Kingdoms •
Samuel Laing (1780–1868), author of
A Residence in Norway, and translator of the
Heimskringla, the Icelandic chronicle of the kings of Norway •
Samuel Laing (1812–1897), chairman of the London, Brighton & South Coast railway, and introducer of the system of
"parliamentary" trains with fares of one penny a mile. •
Kristin Linklater (b. 1946), voice teacher, actor, director and author •
Magnus Linklater (b. 1942), journalist, son of Eric Linklater •
John D. Mackay (1909–1970), headmaster and Orkney patriot •
Ernest Marwick (1915–1977), a writer noted for his writings on Orkney folklore and history •
Murdoch McKenzie (d. 1797), hydrographer •
F. Marian McNeill (1885–1973) folklorist, best known for writing
The Silver Bough •
Edwin Muir (1887–1959), author and poet •
Dr. John Rae (1813–1893),
Arctic explorer •
Robert Rendall (1898–1967), poet, and amateur naturalist •
Rognvald Kali Kolsson (Saint Rognvald) (), Earl of Orkney 1136–1158 •
Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney (), Earl of Orkney •
Julyan Sinclair, television presenter •
Bessie Skea a.k.a. Bessie Grieve (1923–1996), writer of prose and poetry about nature and Orkney life •
Thomas Stewart Traill (1781–1862), professor of medical
jurisprudence at the
University of Edinburgh and editor of the 8th edition of the
Encyclopædia Britannica •
Cameron Stout (b. 1971) winner of
Big Brother in 2003, brother of
Julyan Sinclair •
Margaret Tait (1918–1999), filmmaker and poet •
Thorbjorn Thorsteinsson (d. 1158), known as Thorbjorn the Clerk, Viking •
James Wallace (), physician and botanist •
William Walls (1819–1893), lawyer and industrialist •
Thomas Webster (1772–1844),
geologist and
architect •
Sylvia Wishart (1936–2008), landscape artist •
Jennifer and Hazel Wrigley (b. ) folk musicians ==People associated with Orkney==