David MacRitchie (April 16, 1861 - January 14, 1925) was the younger son of William Dawson MacRitchie and Elizabeth Elder MacRitchie. He was born in Edinburgh and attended the Edinburgh Southern Academy, the Edinburgh Institute and Edinburgh University. He did not gain a degree but qualified as a Chartered Accountant. His father had been a surgeon in the East India Company.

David founded the Gypsy Lore Society in 1889, which he edited with Francis Hindes Groome. In 1907 he became president of the St Andrew Society, a position which he held until his death.

In 1914 he joined the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,serving as vice-president from 1917 - 1920. He was noted for his interest in archaeology, being appointed as a trustee for Lord Abercromby's endowment for an Archeology department at the University of Edinburgh.

He was also a member of the Scottish Arts Club and Vice-president of the Philosophical Institution. he was active in such charities as the Edinburgh Dispensary for Skin Diseases and the Edinburgh Society for the Relief of Indigent Old Men.

Publications by MacRitchie include:

• Ancient and Modern Britons, a Retrospect, 1884
• Accounts of the Gypsies of India, 1886
• The Testimony of Tradition, 1890
• The Ainos, 1892
• The Underground Life, 1892
• Fians, Fairies and Picts, 1893
• Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts 1894
• Pygmies in Northern Scotland, 1892
• Some Hebridean Antiquities, 1895
• Diary of a Tour through Great Britain, (editor) 1897
• The Northern Trolls, 1898
• Memories of the Picts, 1900
• Underground Dwellings, 1900
• Fairy Mounds, 1900
• Shelta, the Caird's Language, 1901
• Hints of Evolution in Tradition, 1902
• The Arctic Voyage of 1653, 1909
• Celtic Civilisation, No date
• Druids and Mound Dwellers, 1910
• Les Pygmies chez les Anciens Egyptiens et les Hebreux (with S.T.H. Horowitz), 1912
• Les kayaks dans le nord de l'Europe, 1912
• Great and Little Britain, 1915
• The Celtic Numerals of Strathclyde, 1915
• The Duns of the North, 1917
• The Savages of Gaelic Tradition, 1920
• The Aborigines of Shetland and Orkney, 1924