Orkney: People
- William Balfour Baikie (1825-1864), traveller in Africa
- George Mackay Brown (1921-1996), poet, author, playwright
- Mary Brunton (1778-1818), author of Self-Control, Discipline and other novels
- Stanley Cursiter (1887-1976), artist
- William Towrie Cutt (1898-1981), author
- Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (b.1934), composer and Master of the Queen's Music
- Walter Traill Dennison (1826-1894), Orcadian folklorist
- Magnus Erlendsson (Saint Magnus) (c.1070-c.1117), Earl of Orkney c.1105-1117
- Andrew Greig (b.1951), Scottish writer
- Jo Grimond (1913-1993), Liberal Party leader and MP for Orkney and Shetland 1950-1983
- 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
- Eric Linklater (1899-1974), novelist, playwright, journalist, essayist and poet
- Edwin Muir (1887-1959), author and poet
- Dr. John Rae (1813-1893), Arctic explorer
- Rognvald Kali Kolsson (Saint Rognvald) (c.1103-1158), Earl of Orkney 1136-1158
- William Sichel (b.1951), ultra distance runner
- Julyan Sinclair, television presenter
- Luke Sutherland (b.1971), writer of novels Jelly Roll, Sweetmeat and Venus as a Boy
- William Tomison (1766-1818), Chief Factor at the Hudsons Bay Company
- Wrigley twins Jennifer and Hazel, international folk duo