• Secretary of State for Scotland: The Marquess of Tweeddale, until 3 January; then vacant until 1885

Law officers edit

• Lord Advocate – Robert Craigie; then William Grant of Prestongrange
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Robert Dundas, the younger; then Patrick Haldane of Gleneagles, jointly with Alexander Hume

Judiciary edit

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Culloden
• Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Milton

• 8 January – Jacobite rising of 1745: Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") with his Jacobite forces occupies Stirling.
• 17 January – Jacobite rising: Battle of Falkirk Muir – British Government troops are defeated by Jacobite forces.
• 1 February – as retreating Jacobite forces remove munitions stored in the church at St. Ninians (near Stirling), it blows up.
• 21 February – Jacobite rising: Siege of Inverness ends with British government forces surrendering Old Fort George to the Jacobite army under threat of mining.^[1]
• 8 April – Jacobite rising: Jacobite supporters sack Cullen House.
• 16 April – the Battle of Culloden, the final pitched battle fought on British soil, brings an end to the Jacobite rising of 1745.
• 3 May – Jacobite rising: "Battle of Loch nan Uamh" – Royal Navy sloops attack French privateers which have landed money (and brandy) intended to aid the Jacobite cause in the Sound of Arisaig.^[2]
• 28 May – Jacobite rising: British troops burn the old castle at Achnacarry.
• 27 June – Charles Edward Stuart flees to the Isle of Skye from Benbecula disguised as Flora MacDonald's maid.
• 1 August – Dress Act 1746 proscribes wearing of the tartan.
• 18 August – two rebel Scottish lords, the Earl of Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerinoch, are beheaded in the Tower of London.
• 20 September – Charles Edward Stuart escapes to France.
• October – foundation stone of new Inveraray Castle laid.
• British Linen Bank chartered as the British Linen Company.^[3]

• 27 March – Michael Bruce, poet and hymnist (died 1767)
• Approximate date – John Bogle, miniature painter (died 1803)

• 4 February – Robert Blair, "graveyard poet" (born 1699)
• 14 June – Colin Maclaurin, mathematician (born 1698)
• 8 August – Francis Hutcheson, theologian and philosopher (born 1694; died in Dublin)
• 6 December – Lady Grizel Baillie, songwriter (born 1665; died in London)

• Matthew Stewart publishes Some General Theorems of Considerable use in the Higher Parts of Mathematics, including an account of Stewart's theorem on the measurement of the triangle.

• Timeline of Scottish history