Alasdair Alpin MacGregor (March 20, 1899 – April 15, 1970) was a Scottish writer, animal welfare campaigner and photographer, known for a large number of travel books.

Being the Observations and Adventures of an Egotistic Private Secretary who was alleged to have been 'warned off' That Island by Admiralty Officials when attempting to emulate Robinson Crusoe at the Time of Its Evacuation there might have been something to caricature.

The same book was the subject of a legal case when MacGregor brought an injunction to prevent the distribution of The Edge of the World, a film by Michael Powell that he claimed was based on it.

Along with T. Ratcliffe Barnett, an Edinburgh minister and author, MacGregor reflects a transitional period during the first half of the 20th century when the north of Scotland was still rural and mostly unaffected by modern society.

In the years before his death in 1970, he visited the United States often and was a mentor to a young Marion Barry, who later became mayor of Washington, D.C.[citation needed] His book about his childhood, The Goat Wife, tells the evocative story of his hard working and resourceful Aunt Dorothy, who left a comfortable existence in Edinburgh's Ann Street - reputed to be the most haunted street in Edinburgh - to begin life as a solo crofter in the Easter Ross village of Ardgay (then known locally as "High Wind").

Spanning the period before the First World War until the end of the Second, it captures the last remnants of the simplicity, privations and charm of Scottish rural community life.

[1] MacGregor caused controversy with his book The Western Isles (1949) which accused modern islanders of being drunkards, greedy, lazy and immoral.

[4] In 1949, The Lewis Association published a booklet titled The Western Isles: A Critical Analysis of the Book of that Name by Alasdair Alpin MacGregor to counter the attack on the people of the Hebrides.

It was agreed that a considerable amount of force had been used to eject MacGegor from the hall but there was no suggestion that Sir Robert had assaulted MacGregor personally.