1861 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – Victoria

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – James Moncreiff
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Edward Maitland

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Colonsay
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Glenalmond

  Events

• 27 February – ironclad warship HMS Black Prince is launched from Robert Napier's yard at Govan on the River Clyde.
• 11 March – the Portpatrick Railway opens to Stranraer Town railway station, providing a connection from Dumfries.
• June – first modern excavation of the Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave of Maeshowe on Orkney.
• 26 September – golfer Tom Morris, Sr. wins the second Open Championship.
• 23 October – foundation stone of the Royal Museum laid by Prince Albert.
• 25 November – a tenement collapses in the Old Town, Edinburgh killing 35 with 15 survivors.
• Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company begin construction of Stockbridge Colonies, pioneering low-cost flats for artisans.
• One O'Clock Gun first fired from Edinburgh Castle.
• Edinburgh and Glasgow Bible Societies merged to form the National Bible Society of Scotland.
• White Horse whisky first produced by James Logan Mackie of Edinburgh.

  Births

• 11 April – Thomas Jaffrey, actuary
• 17 June – Robina Nicol, New Zealand photographer and suffragist
• 19 June – Douglas Haig, soldier and Field Marshal during World War I
• 9 July – William Burrell, shipowner and art collector
• 12 October – Agnes Jekyll, née Graham, artist, writer on domestic matters and philanthropist
• 24 December – John Macdonald, sportsman and physician

  Deaths

• 8 April – John Bartholomew, Sr., cartographer
• 4 October – Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton
• 13 November – John Forbes, physician to Queen Victoria