1948 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George VI
• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Arthur Woodburn

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – John Thomas Wheatley
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Douglas Johnston

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Cooper
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Thomson
• Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Gibson

  Events

• 1 January – a Scottish Region of British Railways begins to operate as a result of nationalization of rail transport in Great Britain under the Transport Act 1947.
• 6 February – last judicial hanging at HM Prison Perth, Stanislaw Miszka for the murder of Catherine McIntyre.
• June – during this year's Highland Show, held at Inverness, the Royal title is bestowed on the event by King George VI.
• 30 June – Glenrothes is designated as a New Town under the New Towns Act 1946.
• 5 July – the National Health Service begins operating as a result of the National Health Service Act 1947.
• 20 October – 1948 KLM Constellation air disaster: A KLM Lockheed Constellation airliner crashes into power cables on approach to Prestwick Airport, killing all 40 on board.
• 20 December – Scottish advocate Margaret Kidd becomes the first British woman King's Counsel in Britain.
• Timex watch and clock factory in Dundee begins operation.
• State Institution for Mental Defectives opens at Carstairs for those with mental disorder following temporary use of the premises as an Army hospital.

  Births

• 8 January – Gillies MacKinnon, film director
• 11 January – Joe Harper, international footballer
• 26 February – Malcolm MacDonald, classical music critic
• 3 March – Rosemary Byrne, Scottish Socialist Party then Solidarity MSP
• 25 March – Lynn Faulds Wood, television consumer affairs presenter and health campaigner
• 8 April – Barbara Young, public servant and Labour peer
• 20 April – Merlin Hay, 24th Earl of Erroll, Scottish colonel and politician, Lord High Constable of Scotland
• 28 April – Scott Fitzgerald, born William McPhail, singer and musical actor
• 11 May – Fiona Woolf, born Catherine Fiona Swain, lawyer and Lord Mayor of London
• 21 May – Denis MacShane, born Denis Matyjaszek, journalist and Labour Party MP
• 15 June – Henry McLeish, footballer, Labour Party MP, MSP and First Minister of Scotland
• 19 June – David MacLennan, theatre actor and producer
• 20 June – Alan Longmuir, pop guitarist with the Bay City Rollers
• 18 July – Jim Watt, lightweight boxer
• 5 August – Gordon Jackson, Labour Party MSP and lawyer
• 3 November – Lulu, born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, singer
• 24 November – Barry Simmons, quiz player
• 13 December – Brian Wilson, Labour Party MP
• 31 December – Sandy Jardine, international footballer and manager
• James Hunter, historian
• Janet Paisley, writer

  Deaths

• 31 January – Oscar Slater, acquitted of murder
• 28 May – Unity Mitford, socialite and fascist
• 1 June – David Anderson, Lord St Vigeans, Scottish advocate and judge, Chairman of the Scottish Land Court 1918–34
• 21 June – D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, biologist
• 17 July – Joseph Westwood, Labour MP
• 19 November – Charles Jarvis, soldier, Victoria Cross recipient

  The arts

• Sydney Goodsir Smith's Under the Eildon Tree: a poem in XXIV elegies is published in Edinburgh.