1816 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Archibald Colquhoun; then Alexander Maconochie
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Maconochie; then James Wedderburn

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Granton
• Lord Justice General – The Duke of Montrose
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Boyle

  Events

• April – Highland Clearances: Factor Patrick Sellar is tried but acquitted at Inverness of culpable homicide during the mass expulsion of crofting tenants from Strathnaver in 1814.
• 21 May – Highland Society of London incorporated by Act of Parliament.
• 18 June – causeway, bridge and sluice across Loch Fleet at The Mound, designed by Thomas Telford, completed.
• 13 August – an earthquake in Inverness is the strongest ever in Scotland.
• 1 September – the Northern Lighthouse Board's new light on the Isle of May, designed by Robert Stevenson, is completed.
• The Nelson Monument, Edinburgh, on Calton Hill, is completed.
• Logie Bridge at Ferness completed to a design by Telford; as also is the bridge at Contin and the harbour at Portmahomack.
• Suspension footbridge erected over the Gala Water in Galashiels and upper arch bridge at Rumbling Bridge completed.
• David Brewster discovers stress birefringence.
• Rev. Robert Stirling obtains a U.K. patent for the Stirling hot air engine.
• Lagavulin distillery established on Islay.
• St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow, is completed as the city's first post-Reformation Roman Catholic church.
• First Jewish community in Edinburgh in modern times established.
• The Edinburgh Races and Caledonian Hunt are held for the first time at Musselburgh Racecourse rather than on the sands of Leith.

  Births

• 5 January
• * James Brunlees, civil engineer
• * Daniel Wilson, archaeologist and academic
• 11 January – Henry Robertson, railway promoter
• 3 February – Archibald McKellar, politician in Ontario
• 14 February – James Morison, evangelical
• 13 June – Charles Alexander, merchant and politician in Quebec
• 1 September – James Drummond, historical painter and curator
• 16 September – Theodore Martin, writer
• 30 September – Archibald Sturrock, steam locomotive engineer
• 12 October – Alexander Bryson, scientist

  Deaths

• 22 February – Adam Ferguson, philosopher and historian
• 28 February – Archibald Bruce, theologian
• 14 June – Allan Maconochie, jurist
• 25 December – Hercules Ross, merchant in Jamaica

  The arts

• Walter Scott's novels The Antiquary, The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality are published.
• The Elgin Marbles are purchased by the British government from Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, for the British Museum in London.