1701 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – William II
• Secretary of State – James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of Seafield, jointly with James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Sir James Stewart
• Solicitor General for Scotland – William Carmichael

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord North Berwick
• Lord Justice General – Lord Lothian
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Pollok

  Events

• 14 March – all illegal cargoes of grain brought to the west of Scotland from Ireland are ordered to be sunk.
• 21 June – title of Duke of Argyll in the Peerage of Scotland created in favour of Archibald Campbell.
• 16 September – on the death of the deposed King James VII of Scotland in exile at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France, his son James Francis Edward Stuart declares himself James VIII.
• Act "for preventing wrongous Imprisonments and against undue delayes in Tryals" gives effect to habeas corpus in Scotland.
• Title of Marquess of Annandale in the Peerage of Scotland created in favour of William Johnstone, who is also this year Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
• Cairnryan established.

  Births

• 15 March – John Carmichael, 3rd Earl of Hyndford, diplomat
• 4 May – William Grant, Lord Prestongrange, politician and judge
• 11 June – David Carnegie, 5th Earl of Northesk
• 4 August – Thomas Blackwell, classical scholar

  Deaths

• January – Kenneth Mackenzie, 4th Earl of Seaforth
• April – David Ruthven, 2nd Lord Ruthven of Freeland
• 23 May – William Kidd, privateer
• 7 June – Gilbert Rule, nonconformist divine and Principal of the University of Edinburgh
• June – Charles Hamilton, 5th Earl of Abercorn
• 23 July – John Kennedy, 7th Earl of Cassilis
• 16 September – King James VII of Scotland
• 1 November – Alexander Stuart, 5th Earl of Moray