1781 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Henry Dundas;
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Murray

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston, the younger
• Lord Justice General – The Viscount Stormont
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Barskimming

  Events

• Construction of The Mound in Edinburgh begins.
• Montrose Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary & Dispensary, predecessor of Sunnyside Royal Hospital, founded by Susan Carnegie.
• John Howie begins publication of the 2nd edition of his Biographia Scoticana : A Brief Historical Account of the Lives, Characters, and Memorable Transactions of the Most Eminent Scots Worthies.

  Births

• March – John Burnet, engraver and painter
• 16 March – William Mitchell, entrepreneur
• 19 March – John Henry Wishart, surgeon
• 12 June – Christian Isobel Johnstone, journalist and novelist
• 12 September – John Grieve, poet
• 14 September – James Walker, civil engineer
• 18 September – Allan Burns, surgeon
• 30 November – Alexander Berry, adventurer and Australian pioneer
• 11 December – David Brewster, physicist

  Deaths

• 31 March – Robert Watson, historian
• 2 July – John Maule, MP

  The arts

• 4 July – Robert Burns joins the Freemasons at Tarbolton.
• 12 October – first bagpipes competition in the Masonic Arms, Falkirk.