1772 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

• April–June – the brig Alexander collects emigrants from the west of Scotland and carries them to Prince Edward Island.
• 10 June – Credit crisis of 1772 is triggered when, following the flight of their partner, Aberdeen-born Alexander Fordyce, to France, the London banking house of Neal, James, Fordyce and Down suspends payment. The resultant panic causes failure of other banks, particularly in Scotland, and especially in Edinburgh and the Ayr Bank.
• Summer – Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant makes a second tour of Scotland.
• Construction of St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, as the first part of the New Town, begins.
• Original North Bridge, Edinburgh, completed.
• Three Stirling councillors privately sign a secret agreement, the "Black Bond", to run the affairs of the burgh to their own personal advantage.
• Fingal's Cave is brought to the attention of the English-speaking world by English naturalist Sir Joseph Banks.

  Births

• 15 January – James Ballantyne, editor and publisher
• 11 February – Thomas Webster, geologist
• 8 June – Robert Stevenson, lighthouse engineer
• 25 December – John Mackay, botanist

  Deaths

• 26 July – James Graeme, poet
• 10 October – William Wilkie, poet

  The arts

• Lady Anne Lindsay writes the ballad "Auld Robin Gray".