1780 in Scotland

Events from the year 1780 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Henry Dundas;
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Murray

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Arniston, the younger
 * Lord Justice General – The Viscount Stormont
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Barskimming

Events

 * 31 May – James Watt patents a copying machine.
 * 18 December – the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is formed.
 * Dalmally Bridge built.
 * Böd of Gremista built in Lerwick.
 * Approximate date
 * James Small produces a two-horse swing plough using Carron Company iron.
 * Kilcalmonell Parish Church at Clachan, Kintyre, is rebuilt.

Births

 * 26 February – Alexander Allan, shipowner (died 1854)
 * 17 March – Thomas Chalmers, Free Church leader (died 1847)
 * 3 April – Walter Newall, architect and civil engineer (died 1863)
 * 10 October – John Abercrombie, physician and philosopher (died 1844)
 * 16 November – Robert Archibald Smith, composer (died 1829)
 * 5 December – Patrick Sellar, lawyer, factor and sheep farmer instrumental in the Highland Clearances (died 1851)
 * 26 December – Mary Somerville, née Fairfax, mathematician (died 1872 in Naples)
 * David Buchan, naval officer and Arctic explorer (lost at sea 1838)
 * Colquhoun Grant, British Army officer (died 1829 in Aachen)
 * William Laird, shipbuilder (died 1841 in Birkenhead)
 * Robert Pinkerton, Bible missionary (died 1859 in Reigate)
 * Andrew Wilson, landscape painter (died 1848)

Deaths

 * 7 October – Patrick Ferguson, British Army officer and designer of the Ferguson rifle (born 1744; killed in Battle of Kings Mountain)
 * 26 November – Sir James Steuart Denham, economist (born 1712)

Sport

 * Royal Aberdeen Golf Club founded as the 'Society of Golfers at Aberdeen'.