1770 in Scotland

Events from the year 1770 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – James Montgomery
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Henry Dundas

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston, the younger
 * Lord Justice General – Duke of Queensberry
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Barskimming

Events

 * 12 April – Monkland Canal authorized.
 * 9 March – Haggis is served on board Captain James Cook's ship HMS Endeavour, anchored off New Zealand, in celebration of the birthday of a Scottish officer on board, Cook himself having a Scottish father.
 * 14 November – Scottish explorer James Bruce is shown the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia.
 * Emigrants from the Highland Clearances in the Hebrides migrate to Prince Edward Island, and to Glasgow where the Gaelic-speaking congregation of St Columba Church of Scotland is formed.
 * Montgomery's Entail Act remedies the system of short leases on agricultural properties.
 * Plans for improvement of the harbour at Dundee proposed by John Smeaton and Glasgow Town Council begins deepening the navigable River Clyde.
 * Approximate date
 * Bridge at Bridge of Weir constructed at Burngill.
 * Harbour at Charlestown, Fife, begun by Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin.
 * The Fordell Railway constructed in Fife.

Births

 * 2 February – George Gordon, 5th Duke of Gordon, nobleman, soldier and politician (died 1836 in London)
 * c. 25 March – Alexander Carse, genre painter (died 1843)
 * 18 April – William Nicol, geologist (died 1851)
 * 9 December (bapt.) – James Hogg, "the Ettrick Shepherd", poet and novelist (died 1835)

Deaths

 * c. January – William Falconer, poet and marine dictionary compiler (born 1732; lost at sea)
 * 27 July – Robert Dinwiddie, colonial Governor of Virginia (born 1693; died in Virginia)
 * 1 November – Alexander Cruden, Biblical scholar (born 1699; died in London)
 * 9 November – John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll, Whig politician (born c. 1693)
 * 5 December – James Stirling, mathematician (born 1692)
 * Approximate date – Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, Gaelic poet (born c. 1698)

The arts

 * David Dalrymple's anthology of Ancient Scottish Poems is published.