Law officers edit

• Lord Advocate – James Moncreiff until March; then John Inglis until July; then Charles Baillie
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Edward Maitland; then Charles Baillie; then David Mure

Judiciary edit

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Colonsay
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Glencorse, then Lord Glenalmond

• 1 January – the permanent North Unst Lighthouse on Muckle Flugga (Shetland), designed by brothers Thomas and David Stevenson, is first illuminated.
• 16 April – the Wernerian Natural History Society of Edinburgh is wound up.
• 31 August – Bressay Lighthouse in Shetland is first illuminated.
• 26 October – launch of Fraserburgh life-boat, the first in Scotland under the auspices of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
• Completion of Hamilton Mausoleum.
• Reconstruction of Paisley Abbey begins.
• Temperate Palm House at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh built.
• The West of Scotland Grand National, predecessor of the Scottish Grand National, is first run, at a course near Houston, Renfrewshire.^[1]

• 14 March – George Henry, painter (died 1943)
• 10 April – Arthur Melville, painter of Oriental subjects (died 1904)
• 7 December – Ned Haig, butcher and rugby union player notable for founding the sport of rugby sevens (died 1939)

• 15 February – John Gray, owner of Greyfriars Bobby
• 19 February – Alexander Black, architect (born c.1790)
• 24 February – Thomas Hamilton, architect (born 1784)
• 10 June – Robert Brown, botanist and palaeobotanist (born 1773)
• 20 June – James Jardine, hydraulic engineer (born 1776)
• 16 September – John Macgregor, shipbuilder (born 1802)

• 24 March – the Scottish National Gallery on The Mound in Edinburgh opens.^[2]
• August – German writer Theodor Fontane tours Scotland.^[3]
• E. B. Ramsay's Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character is published.

• Timeline of Scottish history
• 1858 in Ireland