1826 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George IV

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Sir William Rae, Bt
• Solicitor General for Scotland – John Hope

  Judiciary

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

  Events

• January – the Glasgow City Mission is founded by David Nasmith, initiating the global City Mission movement.
• 5 May – the Ballochney Railway is authorised.
• 11 May – attainder of Threipland baronets of Fingask Castle is repealed and Patrick Budge Murray Threipland, an advocate, is restored to the dignity of a baronet.
• 26 May – the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway and Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway are authorised.
• 18 August – explorer Alexander Gordon Laing becomes the first European to reach Timbuktu but on 26 September is murdered there.
• 23 August – last fatal duel in Scotland fought near Kirkcaldy: linen manufacturer David Landale shoots banker George Morgan.
• 1 October – opening of the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway.
• 17 October – Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh marry in Edinburgh.
• October – James Drew begins in practice as a solicitor in Glasgow, a predecessor of McClure Naismith.
• The Ballantyne printing business in Edinburgh crashes, ruining Sir Walter Scott as a principal investor. He undertakes to repay his creditors from his writings. His publisher Archibald Constable also fails. Also this year, Scott publishes "Letters of Malachi Malgrowther" in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal in support of Scottish banks being able to continue to issue smaller-denomination notes.
• Construction of the National Monument, Edinburgh on Calton Hill is commenced; it will never be completed.
• First spa building at "Saint Ronan's Well", Innerleithen built.
• Gattonside suspension footbridge is built at Melrose.
• Glendronach distillery, by Huntly, and Old Pulteney distillery, by Wick, Caithness, are established.
• The auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull are established in Edinburgh.
• Christian Isobel Johnstone, as 'Margaret Dods', publishes The Cook and Housewife's Manual.
• Approximate date – John Bartholomew, Sr. sets up independently as an engraver and cartographer in Edinburgh, a predecessor of Collins Bartholomew.
• Possible date – Discovery of the Hunterston Brooch.

  Births

• 21 January – Sir Archibald Alison, 2nd Baronet, British Army officer
• 26 April – Robert Adamson, pioneer photographer
• 26 May – James Leith, British Army officer, recipient of the Victoria Cross
• 8 June – Thomas Faed, genre painter
• 12 June – William Alexander, novelist and journalist
• 7 September – John McLachlan, first bishop of the restored Roman Catholic Diocese of Galloway
• 11 October – James Munro, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross
• 30 November – Anthony Home, military surgeon, recipient of the Victoria Cross
• 8 December – John Brown, royal servant
• William Henderson, shipowner and philanthropist
• John P. Laird, steam locomotive designer
• John Sands, journalist

  Deaths

• 21 February – John Kay, caricaturist, engraver and miniaturist
• 21 August – John Barclay, comparative anatomist
• December – William Glen, poet

  The arts

• 2 June – the Irvine Burns Club is formed at the Milne's Inn under the presidency of Dr. John MacKenzie, who had known Robert Burns.
• The Scottish Academy is established in Edinburgh.
• James Hogg's poetry Queen Hynde is published.
• Sir Walter Scott's novel Woodstock is published anonymously.