1721 in Scotland

Events from the year 1721 in Scotland.

Incumbents

 * Secretary of State for Scotland: John Ker, 1st Duke of Roxburghe

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Robert Dundas
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Walter Stewart; then John Sinclair and Charles Binning

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord North Berwick
 * Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay (also this year appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland)
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Grange

Events

 * Battle of Glen Affric: Men of the Jacobite Clan Mackenzie and Clan Macrae ambush men of the pro-Hanoverian Clan Ross led by William Ross, 6th of Easter Fearn (who is fatally wounded) when he attempts to collect rents (forfeit to the crown) on the Mackenzie estates.
 * Battle of Coille Bhan: British Army troops of Colonel Kirk's Regiment under Captain McNeill drive off an attack from the Clan Mackenzie but again fail to collect rents on their estates.
 * Ruthven Barracks completed.
 * Chandos Chair of Medicine and Anatomy established at the University of St Andrews.
 * Robert Wodrow publishes The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland.

Births

 * 21 January – James Murray, military officer and colonial administrator (died 1794)
 * 5 March – John Adam, architect (died 1792)
 * 19 March (baptized) – Tobias Smollett, novelist (died 1771 in Tuscany)
 * 24 June – Francis Garden, Lord Gardenstone, judge (died 1793)
 * 14 July – John Douglas, Anglican bishop of Salisbury and man of letters (died 1807 in England)
 * 19 September – William Robertson, historian and Principal of the University of Edinburgh (died 1793)
 * 3 October – John Skinner, Episcopalian minister, historian, poet and songwriter (died 1807)
 * 5 October – William Wilkie, Presbyterian minister, natural philosopher and poet (died 1772)
 * 6 December – James Elphinston, philologist (died 1809 in England)
 * Earliest likely date – James Grainger, physician, poet and translator (died 1766 in the West Indies)

Deaths

 * 14 January – William Johnstone, 1st Marquess of Annandale (born 1664)
 * 13 December – Alexander Selkirk, sailor and castaway (born 1676; died at sea)