Hamish Macbeth is the lackadaisical police constable of the fictional Scottish Highland town of Lochdubh, in a series of murder mystery novels created by M. C. Beaton (Marion Chesney).
Considered by many to be a useless, lazy moocher, Macbeth is very well informed about his community's activities and often overlooks minor transgressions in the interests of the public weal.
In time, it emerges that, following Highland tradition as the eldest child, he remains single because he is supporting his crofter parents and six much younger siblings by sending them most of his salary, and finding various ways to supplementing his income.
Having created a niche for himself in the community and on the police force, he uses his intelligence and skills to solve murder cases - while avoiding and evading all efforts to transfer, promote, and/or fire him out of it.
He loves the town of Lochdubh (meaning 'black lake' (loch) in Gaelic and pronounced Lokh-DOO) and is content and at peace with his life despite his lack of ambition.
Of great concern to Hamish and his fellow villagers is the threat of possible closure of Lochdubh's police station,[1][2] something his superior and archenemy, Chief Inspector Blair, would like to see.
The romance ultimately ends in a broken engagement because of her sexual coldness; thereafter, his luck with women, including Elspeth Grant, a reporter with whom he has a relationship, continues to be poor.
In an interview, the author recalls, "I was at a fishing school in Sutherland in the very north of Scotland, and I thought, what a wonderful setting for a classical detective story, 11 people isolated in this Highland wilderness.