1866 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – Victoria

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – James Moncreiff until July; then George Patton
• Solicitor General for Scotland – George Young; then Edward Strathearn Gordon

  Judiciary

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

  Events

• January? – The Oban Times begins publication as a weekly newspaper.
• 31 March – The Caithness Courier begins publication as a newspaper in Thurso.
• 2 April – Thomas Carlyle gives the Inaugural Address at the University of Edinburgh.
• 19 May – the first part of the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, a predecessor of the National Museum of Scotland, is opened.
• 11 August – Lodge Kelburne No. 459 founded in Millport, Cumbrae.
• 16 September – Willie Park wins his third Open Championship, at Prestwick Golf Club.
• 17 October – Ballater railway station opens to the public as the terminus of the Deeside Railway; on 20 & 24 September the Prince and Princess of Wales were able to use the station.
• City of Glasgow Improvements Act provides for urban renewal.
• "Cox's Stack" or "Lumb", the -tall chimney of Cox Brothers' Camperdown Works and a notable landmark of Dundee, is completed.
• Duncraig Castle near Plockton is built for Alexander Matheson by Alexander Ross.
• The Denholm Group is established by John Denholm of Greenock as a shipping agency.
• Samurai Yamao Yōzō, one of the Chōshū Five, begins 2 years studying marine engineering in Glasgow.
• The last Kirkcaldy whaler, The Brilliant, is sold to Peterhead.

  Births

• 5 February – Arthur Keith, anatomist and anthropologist
• 6 May – Murdoch Macdonald, civil engineer and Liberal politician
• 6 June – John Stirling-Maxwell, Conservative politician and philanthropist
• 12 October – Ramsay MacDonald, first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 4 November – Jane Findlater, novelist
• 30 November – Robert Broom, paleontologist
• Dorothea Ruggles-Brise, née Stewart-Murray, collector of traditional Scottish music
• Archie Simpson, golfer and course designer

  Deaths

• 14 March – Alexander Morison, physician and psychiatrist
• 4 April – William Dick, founder of Edinburgh Veterinary College
• 29 June – George Thomson, shipbuilder
• 21 August – Benjamin Blyth, civil engineer
• 10 September – Charles Maclaren, journalist and geologist, co-founder of The Scotsman newspaper
• 24 December – Robert Dick, natural historian

  The arts

• David Octavius Hill's painting The First General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, Signing the Act of Separation and Deed of Demission at Tanfield, Edinburgh 23 May 1843 is completed.