1896 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – Victoria
• Secretary for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Lord Balfour of Burleigh

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Sir Charles Pearson until May; then Andrew Murray
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Andrew Murray; then Charles Dickson

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Robertson
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Kingsburgh

  Events

• January – first Caledonian Railway 721 Class steam locomotive is turned out from its St. Rollox railway works in Springburn, Glasgow.
• 14 March – 1896 Scottish Cup Final is played at New Logie Green, home ground of St Bernard's F.C. in Edinburgh between Edinburgh derby rivals Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian F.C.; Hearts win 3–1.
• 14 December – Glasgow Subway, the third oldest metro system in the world, begins operations in Glasgow.
• The first Arrol-Johnston automobile is produced, in Glasgow.
• Replacement Stroma Lighthouse built.
• A new Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, is established on Blackford Hill, replacing that on Calton Hill, under the auspices of Ralph Copeland, Astronomer Royal for Scotland.
• Glasgow District Pauper Lunatic Asylum opened at Gartloch.
• The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland begins excavating Ardoch Roman Fort.
• First Scottish bar managed under the Gothenburg Public House System opened by the Fife Coal Company at Hill of Beath.
• The Famous Grouse Scotch whisky first blended by Matthew Gloag & Son of Perth.

  Births

• 14 February – Andrew Wilson, international footballer
• 26 February – Mairi Chisholm, nurse and ambulance driver in World War I, one of "The Madonnas of Pervyse"
• 25 May – William Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick, flying ace in World War I
• 19 July – A. J. Cronin, novelist and physician
• 25 July – Josephine Tey, born Elizabeth MacKintosh, novelist
• 15 August – Douglas Wimberley, soldier
• 24 September – Abe Moffat, miner, trade unionist and communist activist
• 14 December – Rita Taketsuru, born Jessie Roberta Cowan, "mother of Japanese whisky"

  Deaths

• 8 January – Colin Blackburn, Baron Blackburn, judge
• 22 January – Daniel Kinnear Clark, mechanical engineer

  The arts

• Charles Rennie Mackintosh produces stencilled friezes for Catherine Cranston's Buchanan Street tearooms in Glasgow.
• Jane Findlater's novel The Green Graves of Balgowrie is published.
• Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Weir of Hermiston, left unfinished at his death in 1894, is published.