Law officers edit

• Lord Advocate – George Patton until February; then Edward Strathearn Gordon
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Edward Strathearn Gordon; then John Millar

Judiciary edit

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Colonsay until 25 February; then Lord Glencorse
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Glenalmond, then Lord Moncreiff

• 29 April – the Caledonian Mercury newspaper is last published.
• 9 July – Queen's Park F.C., Scotland's first senior football club, is formed.
• 29 August – John Hill Burton is appointed Historiographer Royal.
• 15 October – A Statue of Albert, Prince Consort is unveiled in the grounds of Balmoral Castle^[1]
• 28 November – opening of Baylis's Royal Colosseum Theatre and Opera House, Glasgow, which becomes the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in May 1869.^[2]
• Edinburgh Crystal glass is first manufactured, by the Edinburgh and Leith Flint Glass Company.
• The West of Scotland Grand National, predecessor of the Scottish Grand National, moves to a new course, Bogside Racecourse near Irvine, North Ayrshire.^[3]

• 26 April – William Barr, landscape painter (died 1933 in the United States)
• 3 June – George Henry Walton, architect and designer (died 1933 in London)
• 1 August – William Speirs Bruce, naturalist, polar scientist and oceanographer (died 1921)
• 9 August – Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall, writer of history for children (died 1941 in London)
• 26 August – Robert William Hamilton, colonial judge and Liberal politician (died 1944)

• 5 January – Alexander Smith, poet (born 1829)
• 16 January – Alexander Gibson, surgeon and forest conservator in India (born 1800)
• 9 February – John Campbell, surgeon (born 1784)
• 24 June – Horatio McCulloch, landscape painter (born 1806)

• January – Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim tour to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

• Timeline of Scottish history
• 1867 in Ireland