1774 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

• 27 June – foundation stone of General Register House in Edinburgh, designed by Robert Adam, is laid; the building will not be opened until 1788.
• Dundas House in New Town, Edinburgh, designed by William Chambers, is completed.
• Punitive laws against the Clan Gregor are repealed.
• Roman Catholic chapel built on the site that will become St Peter's Church, Aberdeen.
• The Schiehallion experiment is carried by Nevil Maskelyne out to determine the mean density of the Earth.

  Births

• 24 February – Archibald Constable, publisher
• 26 February – William Farquhar, soldier and administrator in the East India Company
• 3 June – Robert Tannahill, weaver poet
• 8 October – Henry Duncan, Church of Scotland minister, geologist and social reformer; founder of the savings bank movement
• 4 November – Robert Allan, weaver poet
• 8 November – Robert Reid, royal architect
• 12 November – Charles Bell, anatomist
• 24 November – Thomas Dick, Secession Church minister and scientist
• Robert Thom, hydraulic engineer

  Deaths

• 19 January – Thomas Gillespie, Presbyterian minister
• 16 October – Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet

  The arts

• During this year's harvest, 15-year-old farm labourer Robert Burns is assisted by his contemporary Nelly Kilpatrick who inspires his first attempt at poetry, "O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass".

  Sport

• Musselburgh Golf Club established on Levenhall Links and the Old Club Cup is played for the first time.