1825 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George IV

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Sir William Rae, Bt
• Solicitor General for Scotland – John Hope

  Judiciary

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

  Events

• 1 February – windstorm passes over Scotland with winds around.
• March – the National Bank of Scotland is constituted in Edinburgh; it opens for business in October.
• 28 July – foundation stone of the Royal High School's new building on Calton Hill in Edinburgh is laid.
• 18 August – Scottish adventurer Gregor MacGregor issues a £300,000 loan with 2.5% interest through the London bank of Thomas Jenkins & Company for the fictitious Central American republic of Poyais. His actions lead to the Panic of 1825, the first modern stock market crash, starting in the Bank of England and precipitating the closure of six London banks and sixty country ones in England.
• 21 October – PS Comet II sinks off Gourock in the Firth of Clyde with the loss of 62 lives.
• 1 November – George Thompson establishes the Aberdeen Line of shipping to the Empire.
• Paddle steamers first introduced on the Portpatrick to Donaghadee packet service.
• Rinns of Islay lighthouse established on Orsay, Inner Hebrides, by Robert Stevenson.
• Standard Life Assurance Company established with headquarters in Edinburgh.
• The following Scotch whisky distilleries are established: Ben Nevis ; Edradour ; Glenkinchie ; and Glenury.

  Births

• March – William McGonagall, doggerel 'poet and tragedian'
• 22 March – Jane Mackenzie, née Sym, spouse of the Prime Minister of Canada
• 23 April – William Aitken, pathologist
• 24 April – R. M. Ballantyne, writer of juvenile fiction
• 24 May – Robert Jardine, businessman and politician
• 27 August – William Blake, African explorer
• 31 August – Robert Dunsmuir, industrialist and politician in British Columbia
• 12 October – Duncan Cameron, businessman and inventor
• William Edward Baxter, businessman, politician and travel writer
• Arthur Bell, whisky blender
• George Robertson, bookseller

  Deaths

• 28 February – Grace Kennedy, writer of religious novels
• 27 April – George Skene, soldier, landowner and politician
• 12 November – William Knox, poet

  The arts

• Dalry Burns Club established; it claims the longest unbroken record of Burns suppers.
• Allan Cunningham edits the anthology The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern.
• Robert Davidson's Poems are published.
• William Knox's poetry collection Harp of Zion is published.
• Sir Walter Scott's novels The Betrothed and The Talisman are published anonymously.
• William Tennant's play John Balliol is published.