1821 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George IV

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Sir William Rae, Bt
• Solicitor General for Scotland – James Wedderburn

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Granton
• Lord Justice General – The Duke of Montrose
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Boyle

  Events

• 15 January – Sumburgh Head Lighthouse on Shetland, designed by Robert Stevenson, is first illuminated.
• 28 April – foundation stone for the Melville Monument in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, is laid.
• 18 July – thief David Haggart is hanged in Edinburgh, aged 20, for the murder of a Dumfries tolbooth keeper in 1820, leaving an autobiography, The life of David Haggart, and phrenologist George Combe's Phrenological observations on the cerebral development of David Haggart.
• 14 August – Trinity Chain Pier opens at Trinity, Edinburgh.
• 16 October – the School of Arts of Edinburgh, a predecessor of Heriot-Watt University, is established by Leonard Horner for the education of working men.
• The Royal Scottish Society of Arts is founded as The Society for the Encouragement of the Useful Arts in Scotland by David Brewster.
• The publisher T&T Clark is established in Edinburgh by Thomas Clark.
• William Hooker publishes Flora Scotica; or, A description of Scottish plants.

  Births

• 10 March – Màiri Mhòr nan Òran, Gaelic poet
• 15 March – William Milligan, theologian
• 11 April – James Campbell Walker, architect
• 26 April – Robert Adamson, pioneer photographer
• 16 June – Old Tom Morris, golfer
• 19 June – George Whyte-Melville, sporting novelist
• 1 August – James Gowans, architect
• 17 October – Alexander Gardner, photographer
• 13 December – Joseph Noel Paton, painter
• 29 December – John Francis Campbell, Celtic folklorist and inventor

  Deaths

• 2 April – James Gregory, physician
• 15 June – John Ballantyne, publisher
• 4 October – John Rennie the Elder, civil engineer
• 8 November – Charles Murray, actor
• 6 December – John Taylor, medical missionary
• Isabel Pagan, poet

  The arts

• John Galt's novels Annals of the Parish and The Ayrshire Legatees are published.
• Jane Porter's novel The Scottish Chiefs is published.
• Sir Walter Scott's novel Kenilworth is published anonymously.