Law officers edit

• Lord Advocate – James Montgomery
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Henry Dundas

Judiciary edit

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston, the younger
• Lord Justice General – Duke of Queensberry
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Barskimming

• 17 August – Edinburgh botanist James Robertson makes the first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis.
• 16 November – During the night, Solway Moss, on the Cumberland border, bursts, flooding local farms and settlements.^[1]
• 26 November – First section of Monkland Canal opened.
• Encyclopædia Britannica First Edition completes publication in Edinburgh.
• Thomas Pennant's A Tour in Scotland, MDCCLXIX is published.
• Edinburgh Society of Bowlers codifies the modern rules for bowls.

• 15 August – Walter Scott, poet and novelist (died 1832)
• 11 September – Mungo Park, explorer (drowned under attack 1806 on the Niger)
• 4 November – James Montgomery, poet, hymnist, editor and humanitarian (died 1854 in Sheffield)

• 26 January – Sydney Parkinson, botanical illustrator (born c. 1745; died at sea)
• 14 May – Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin (born 1732)
• 17 September – Tobias Smollett, novelist (born 1721; died in Italy)
• William Lauder, literary forger (born c. 1680; died in Barbados)

• Henry Mackenzie's novel The Man of Feeling and verse The Pursuits of Happiness published.

• Timeline of Scottish history