1771 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – James Montgomery
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Henry Dundas

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston, the younger
• Lord Justice General – Duke of Queensberry
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Barskimming

  Events

• 17 August – Edinburgh botanist James Robertson makes the first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis.
• 16 November – During the night, Solway Moss, on the Cumberland border, bursts, flooding local farms and settlements.
• 26 November – First section of Monkland Canal opened.
• Encyclopædia Britannica First Edition completes publication in Edinburgh.
• Thomas Pennant's A Tour in Scotland, MDCCLXIX is published.
• Edinburgh Society of Bowlers codifies the modern rules for bowls.

  Births

• 15 August – Walter Scott, poet and novelist
• 11 September – Mungo Park, explorer
• 4 November – James Montgomery, poet, hymnist, editor and humanitarian

  Deaths

• 26 January – Sydney Parkinson, botanical illustrator
• 14 May – Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin
• 17 September – Tobias Smollett, novelist
• William Lauder, literary forger

  The arts

• Henry Mackenzie's novel The Man of Feeling and verse The Pursuits of Happiness published.