#1Famous people · Dunoon, Argyll and Bute
Leaders stand out among the 16 famous people born in Dunoon
Articles in 32 languages make the Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy the best known. Stewart Houston and Virginia Bottomley follow. Over 150 years of births, the list goes from Joseph Taylor (1850) to Bevan Rodd (2000). Per 10,000 residents, the town has 20, close to the 28.8 of the typical Argyll and Bute town.
Born here
16
notable people
Best known
Sylvester McCoy
in 32 Wikipedia languages
First
1850
Joseph Taylor
Youngest
2000
Bevan Rodd
Most common field
Sports
8 people
What stands out about Dunoon’s famous people
★ What stands out · Known for
What Dunoon is known for
Compared with the usual town, leaders are the most over-represented field, at 4.3 times.
The usual town: the share across everyone listed across UK towns. Tap a field to see its people.
The best known
Born in Dunoon
Sylvester McCoy leads with articles in 32 languages, ahead of Stewart Houston (13) and Virginia Bottomley (11).
#1
#2Sports
Stewart Houston
born 1949Scottish football player and manager (born 1949)
13 Wikipedia languagesRead more ↗
#3Politics & Law
Virginia Bottomley
born 1948British politician (born 1948)
11 Wikipedia languagesRead more ↗
Through the years
When Dunoon’s famous people were born
The 1940s top the chart, with 5 births in the decade.
SportsPolitics & LawFilm, TV & StageBusiness
Each dot is a person, stacked by the decade they were born.
Everyone
Everyone else born in Dunoon
Another 13, the earliest born in 1850.
No one matches both filters.
Next door
Famous people from the towns next door
Around it, Greenock has the most people on record, 223 of them.
Questions about famous people from Dunoon
Who is the most famous person from Dunoon?
Sylvester McCoy (Scottish actor (born 1943)) is the best known by our measure: Wikipedia has an article about them in 32 languages. Next come Stewart Houston and Virginia Bottomley.
How many famous people were born in Dunoon?
16 people born in Dunoon have an English Wikipedia article that confirms the town as their birthplace. Wikidata places 20 people here; the rest aren’t listed because their article names somewhere else, or no town.
What is Dunoon known for?
Among its famous people, athletes: 8 of the 16. That is 50% of the town’s list, against 49% across UK towns.
Who is the earliest-born famous person from Dunoon?
Joseph Taylor, born in 1850. The youngest on the list was born in 2000.
Who counts as from Dunoon?
People Wikidata records as born in a place inside Dunoon’s locality (the NRS 2022 locality boundary), a hospital or district within it included, whose English Wikipedia article agrees. People who only lived here, adult performers and people known mainly for crimes aren’t listed.
Why is someone missing?
Their Wikidata birthplace may be a bigger area (“London”), another town, or missing, or their article may give no birthplace. We only list people both sources agree on; editing Wikidata or Wikipedia changes this page at the next refresh.
From Wikidata (CC0: birthplaces, descriptions, years, occupations) and English Wikipedia (each person’s article confirms the birthplace; linked, not quoted). Birthplaces are placed in the town by National Records of Scotland’s Census 2022 locality boundaries (Open Government Licence v3.0). Ranked by how many Wikipedia languages cover each person. Fields are read from Wikidata’s description and occupations. “The usual town”: everyone listed across UK towns. Portraits: each person’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Photo credits (12)
- Sylvester McCoy: Patrick Subotkiewiez, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Stewart Houston: The original uploader was Thebot at Ukrainian Wikipedia., Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Virginia Bottomley: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Joseph Taylor: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Arabella Scott: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Neil MacFarlane: Socheid, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Lewis Strapp: Daniel from Glasgow, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Daniel Drew: Francis Marshall (book), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- James Begg Kent: Photographer unidentified, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- James Watt: Henry Howard, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- John Logie Baird: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Thomas Brisbane: E. E. Friedrich T. Schenck (1811-1885), Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.