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Mary Stuart (Marie Stuart), otherwise known as Mary Queen of Scots,  was one of Scotland’s most controversial monarchs. She led a turbulent reign in Scotland with the nobles but was much loved by the common folk. She was famed for her beauty, intellect and love of animals but more so for her execution, ordered by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth of England.

James Watt was a famous Scottish inventor who is famous for his improvements to steam engines that in turn played a major part in the industrial revolution. Watt was such an influential figure that after his death the Watt, a unit of measurement of electrical and mechanical power, was named after him. James Watt was born in Greenock on 18 January 1736 and was the son of a prosperous shipwright. Watt started his career as a maker of mathematical instruments, but soon became interested in steam engines.

Newcomen engines (steam) were pumping water from mines all over the country at the time of Watt’s birth. It was a Newcomen engine that Watt was given to repair around 1764 that would result in his first patent in 1769. He made several improvements and designed a separate condensing chamber for the steam engine that prevented enormous losses of steam. This was groundbreaking as previously the engine was terribly inefficient.

Watt died on the 19 August 1819. He patented several other important inventions including the rotary engine, the double-action engine and the steam indicator, which records the steam pressure inside the engine.

You can visit the town of his birth, Greenock, which has a college, pub, monument and museum exhibitions about their famous son.

Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) (also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as simply The Bard) was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a "light" Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these pieces, his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt.

He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. A cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world, celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was voted by the Scottish public as being the Greatest Scot, through a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.