1874 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – Victoria

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – George Young until February; then Edward Strathearn Gordon
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Andrew Rutherfurd-Clark; then John Millar; then William Watson

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Glencorse
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Moncreiff

  Events

• 27 January – Bo'ness Junction rail crash near Falkirk on the North British Railway: 16 killed in a collision.
• 27 February – four crew of Stonehaven life-boat lost on service.
• 5 March – in the general election, former Scottish coal miner Alexander Macdonald is elected for the English seat of Stafford, among the first Members of Parliament from a working class background.
• 21 March – the first ever final of the Scottish Cup is won by Queen's Park F.C. who beat Clydesdale 2-0.
• 21 May – foundation stone of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh laid by Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, Duke of Buccleuch.
• 28 July – the Sutherland and Caithness Railway is opened through to Wick and Thurso, completing the Highland Railway system to the far north and causing cessation of Britain's last mail coach.
• 7 August – Church Patronage Act 1874 abolishes patronage in the appointment of ministers to the Church of Scotland.
• Bernera Riot: Islanders of Great Bernera successfully resist Clearances.
• Coulburn Lobnitz & Company establish the shipbuilding business that will become known as Lobnitz in Renfrew.
• Joseph Russell, Anderson Rodger and William Lithgow establish the shipbuilding business that will become Lithgows in Port Glasgow.
• W. B. Thompson establishes the business that will become the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Dundee.
• Victoria Swing Bridge in Leith completed, the longest swing bridge in Britain at this date.
• Broomhall Castle built.
• Association football teams Heart of Midlothian F.C., Greenock Morton F.C. and Hamilton Academical F.C. are founded.

  Births

• 20 February – Mary Garden, operatic soprano
• 23 February – Hugh S. Roberton, choirmaster
• 9 March – John Duncan Fergusson, artist
• 25 November – Lewis Spence, writer and folklorist

  Deaths

• 24 January – Adam Black, publisher
• 31 July – Cosmo Innes, lawyer and antiquary
• 6 August – Patrick Fairbairn, minister and theologian

  The arts

• 11 August – Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery opens as The Smith Institute in Stirling under the bequest of painter Thomas Stuart Smith.
• Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson, resident in New Town, Edinburgh, writes the tune that becomes the national anthem of Iceland, "Lofsöngur".