1789 in Scotland

Events from the year 1789 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Ilay Campbell; then Robert Dundas of Arniston
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Robert Dundas of Arniston; then Robert Blair

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Glenlee until 27 September; then from 26 October Lord Succoth
 * Lord Justice General – The Viscount Stormont
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Braxfield

Events

 * 10 July – Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River delta in North America.
 * November – foundation stone for Old College, University of Edinburgh, laid.
 * December – steamboat experiments on the Forth and Clyde Canal by Patrick Miller of Dalswinton.
 * The original lighthouses at Eilean Glas on Scalpay, Outer Hebrides, and Dennis Head Old Beacon on North Ronaldsay, Orkney, are completed by Thomas Smith.
 * Robert Adam designs a new house at Newliston.
 * Andrew Duncan delivers the first lectures on forensic medicine in Britain, at the University of Edinburgh.
 * The Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society is founded by James McGrigor and James Robertson.
 * Robert Burns is appointed an exciseman.
 * New pump room for St Bernard's Well, Stockbridge, Edinburgh, designed by painter Alexander Nasmyth.
 * John Ainslie completes and publishes his 9-sheet map of Scotland.
 * Flax mill established at Old Deer.
 * Clyde Model Dockyard is established as a toyshop in Glasgow.

Births

 * 5 January – Thomas Pringle, writer, poet and abolitionist (died 1834)
 * 28 February – David Duncan, Presbyterian minister (died 1829)
 * 1 March – John Ramsay McCulloch, economist (died 1864 in London)
 * 17 August – William Knox, poet and journalist (died 1825)
 * 12 October – William Collins, publisher (died 1853)
 * 30 October – Michael Scott, author (died 1835)
 * 9 November – Robert Pearse Gillies, poet and writer (died 1858 in London)
 * November – Peter Miller Cunningham, naval surgeon and pioneer in Australia (died 1864 in Greenwich)
 * 3 December – Archibald Robertson, physician (died 1864 in Bristol)
 * 20 December – William Burn, architect, pioneer of the Scottish Baronial style (died 1870)
 * 23 December – George Douglas, 17th Earl of Morton, Tory politician (died 1858)
 * Thomas Wright, prison visitor (died 1875 in Manchester)

Deaths

 * 17 March – Sir Charles Douglas, 1st Baronet, admiral (born 1727)
 * 27 September – Thomas Miller, Lord Glenlee, judge and politician (born 1717)

Sport

 * 9 October – the first recorded cricket century to be scored in Scotland is made by the Hon. Colonel Charles Lennox: he scores 136 not out.