1705 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – Anne
• Secretary of State –
• * until March: John Ker, 5th Earl of Roxburghe jointly with James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of Seafield
• * March–June: John Ker, 5th Earl of Roxburghe jointly with William Johnstone, 1st Marquess of Annandale
• * June–September: William Johnstone, 1st Marquess of Annandale jointly with Hugh Campbell, 3rd Earl of Loudoun
• * from September: Hugh Campbell, 3rd Earl of Loudoun, jointly with John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar

  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 Tarbat
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Whitelaw, then Lord Ormiston

  Events

• 30 January – Janet Cornfoot is killed by a mob, and Thomas Brown is starved to death, for accusations of witchcraft at Pittenweem subsequently exposed as perjuries.
• 14–19 February – date of first Edinburgh Courant newspaper published, by printer James Watson.
• March – the Parliament of England passes the Alien Act in response to the Parliament of Scotland's Act of Security 1704; it is repealed in December without taking effect.
• 11 April – English captain Thomas Green and two of his crew are hanged at Leith for alleged piracy on the Malabar Coast.
• 20 July – Act of the Parliament of Scotland for the promotion of salmon, white and herring fishing.
• September – negotiations for a Treaty of Union with England are resumed. At about this time, the independent pro-Union group around John Hay, 2nd Marquess of Tweeddale, is first nicknamed the Squadrone Volante.
• Lord Archibald Campbell appointed Lord High Treasurer of Scotland.

  Births

• 2 March – William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, judge and politician
• 5 May – John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun, noble and military leader
• probable – David Mallet, writer

  Deaths

• 11 March – Margaret Wemyss, 3rd Countess of Wemyss
• 14 March – James Scott, Earl of Dalkeith
• date unknown – Alexander Arbuthnot, politician