1849 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – Victoria

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Andrew Rutherfurd
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Thomas Maitland

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Boyle
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Glencorse

  Events

• 16 July – Portpatrick to Donaghadee packet service withdrawn.
• 5 October – after three years construction, the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse oil light is first exhibited.
• 1 November – Buchanan Street railway station opened in Glasgow by the Caledonian Railway.
• Pollokshields is established as a Glasgow southside suburb by the Stirling-Maxwell family and set out or 'feued' by Edinburgh architect David Rhind.
• The drapers' store of Arthur & Fraser, predecessor of the House of Fraser, is established in Glasgow by Hugh Fraser and James Arthur.

  Births

• 27 May – Catherine Cranston, tearoom proprietor
• 24 September – Cathcart William Methven, harbour engineer and painter
• 23 October – James Reid, physician
• 29 December – William Cunningham, economist and economic historian

  Deaths

• 5 March – David Scott, historical painter
• 3 July – Anthony Todd Thomson, physician and pioneer of dermatology