1897 in Scotland

Incumbents

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

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Andrew Murray
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Charles Dickson

  Judiciary

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

  Events

• 25 March – formation of the Scottish Trades Union Congress.
• 1 May – all the able-bodied men of Pabbay, Barra Isles, are lost in a storm while out fishing.
• 20 August – Ronald Ross, who is to become the first Scot to win a Nobel prize, discovers the malaria Plasmodium in dissecting an Anopheles mosquito, demonstrating the transmission mechanism for the disease.
• 2 November – the Highland Railway's Dingwall and Skye Railway is opened from Stromeferry to a new west coast terminus at Kyle of Lochalsh railway station.
• Congested Districts Board set up by the government to administer grants for the development of agriculture, fishing and cottage industries in Highlands and Islands areas where existing resources are inadequate for support of the population.
• McEwan Hall, University of Edinburgh completed.
• Construction of McCaig's Tower at Oban commences.
• Construction of Kinloch Castle on the isle of Rùm for English playboy George Bullough commences.
• The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews' Rules of Golf Committee is appointed and issues its first rules of golf.

  Births

• 9 February – James Stuart, Unionist politician, Secretary of State for Scotland
• 25 March – John Laurie, actor
• 23 May – Jimmie Guthrie, motorcycle racer
• 6 June – Jane Haining, Church of Scotland missionary
• 17 September – Isaac Wolfson, businessman
• 1 November – Naomi Mitchison, novelist
• 25 November – Helen Duncan, née MacFarlane, medium

  Deaths

• 11 March – Henry Drummond, evangelist
• 24 October – William Gardner, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross