For such a small country, Scotland has provided the world with a disproportionate share of ingenuity and this area is proud of its connections with a number of distinguished scientists, inventors and explorers.

John Napier (1550-1617)
Born either in Edinburgh or Balfron, John Napier, who came from a wealthy family with properties both in Edinburgh and around Drymen, settled after his studies at the family estate at Gartness. He was of a scientific inclination with an enquiring mind at a time when the church strongly disapproved of such studies. Napier is noted for his invention of logarithms and for 'Napier's bones', an early calculator, using rods for multiplication and division.

Colin Maclaurin (1698-1746)
Colin Maclaurin was born in Kilmodan where his father, John Maclaurin, was the local minister. This small village is on the river Ruel and the church is at Glendaruel. Maclaurin went to Glasgow University aged 11 and got a degree aged 14, his thesis being on the subject of gravity, and developing work by Isaac Newton. He went on to become one of the greatest mathematicians in Europe working in many fields, including devising the actuarial foundations of the idea of insurance. He fell ill shortly after wearing himself in his efforts to coordinate the defences of the city of Edinburgh during the 1745 rebellion and died the next year.

James Bruce (1730-1794)
The explorer James Bruce was born at and became Laird of Kinnaird, near Airth by Stirling. He was known as ‘the Abyssynian’ because of his African adventures and is particularly associated with his journey to the headwaters of the Blue Nile. He published Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile in 1790 – a volume so filled by outlandish adventures that, in spite of them being true, the work was received sceptically. The English man of letters Doctor Samuel Johnson - who famously disliked Scots anyway! – was particularly scathing. Later travellers, however, vindicated Bruce’s account.

Henry Bell (1767-1830)
This engineer ran the world's first sea-going steam-powered commercial steamer. The Comet operated from Helensburgh to Glasgow and Greenock (the birthplace of James Watt, who perfected the steam engine) from 1812. Other competitors soon joined in and Bell lengthened his vessel, making it capable of a much longer run, between Glasgow and Fort William, in two days. Day one took the boat through the lovely Kyles of Bute to the Crinan Canal. The second day involved an exciting sail via the Dorus Mor (the 'Great Door') a narrow sea-passage off Craignish Point and north-west of Crinan, with one of the most formidable tide-races in Europe. Sadly, during a winter passage in 1820, the little steam engine - four horse-power equivalent! - was unable to keep the vessel off the rocks at Craignish Point, though Bell and his passengers saved themselves. The Comet's flywheel is in Hermitage Park, Helensburgh, and there is also a monument to him in the town.

George Forrest (1873-1932)
Falkirk-born George Forrest was eventually employed at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, from where he was sent off on his plant-hunting expeditions. In total he spent 28 years collecting mostly in western China and was responsible for the introduction of many familiar and spectacular garden species, such as the bright blue alpine gentian Gentiana sino-ornata, several primulas, including the candelabra species P. bulleyana, as well as camellias, magnolias and - perhaps most famously - several rhododendron species.

John Logie Baird (1888-1946)
Baird was born in Helensburgh on the Clyde coast and studied at Glasgow University. Not only is he regarded as the inventor of television - he gave the first practical demonstration of a television image - Logie Baird also invented fibre optics and developed infra-red night viewing systems and worked on wartime defence projects.