1808 in Scotland

Events from the year 1808 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Archibald Colquhoun
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – David Boyle

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Succoth to 31 August; then Lord Avontoun
 * Lord Justice General – The Duke of Montrose
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Granton

Events

 * January – Christopher Anderson begins missionary work in The Pleasance district of Edinburgh, which will lead to his taking over the Charlotte Chapel.
 * 2 March – inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society is held in Edinburgh under the presidency of Prof. Robert Jameson.
 * 21 May – Thomas Telford's Tongland bridge is fully completed.
 * 27 May – the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway becomes the first railway line in Scotland to be authorised by Act of Parliament.
 * 7 June – first meeting at the Bogside Racecourse, Irvine.
 * October – Thomas Telford's Dunkeld–Birnam bridge is opened to road traffic.
 * John Rennie's new Musselburgh Bridge (over the Esk) is completed.
 * Court of Session Act reforms the Court of Session.
 * Broadford flax mill is established in Aberdeen, the earliest iron-framed textile mill in Scotland.
 * William Blackwood begins publication of the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, edited by David Brewster.
 * Travel writer Sir John Carr publishes Caledonian Sketches, or a Tour through Scotland in 1807.

Births

 * 22 January – James Fergusson, architectural historian (died 1886 in London)
 * 29 February – Hugh Falconer, geologist, botanist, paleontologist and paleoanthropologist (died 1865 in London)
 * 9 May – John Scott Russell, shipbuilder (died 1882 on the Isle of Wight)
 * 11 June – James Ballantine, painter (died 1877)
 * 16 June – James Frederick Ferrier, metaphysical and epistemological philosopher (died 1864)
 * 2 July – Thomas Simpson, Arctic explorer (probable suicide 1840 in the United States)
 * 19 August – James Nasmyth, mechanical engineer (died 1890 in England)
 * 24 August – William Lindsay Alexander, church leader (died 1884)
 * c. 7 or 8 September – William Livingston (Uilleam Macdhunleibhe), Gaelic poet (died 1870)
 * 15 September – John Hutton Balfour, botanist (died 1884)
 * 21 September – Evan MacColl, poet writing in Gaelic and English (died 1898 in Canada)
 * 19 December – Horatius Bonar, Free Church minister and hymnodist (died 1889)
 * James Gall, evangelical minister, astronomer and cartographer (died 1895)
 * David Moore, born Muir, botanist (died 1879 in Ireland)
 * David Rhind, architect (died 1883)
 * James Aitken Wylie, Free Church minister and religious historian (died 1890)

Deaths

 * 20 January – Francis Charteris, Lord Elcho (born 1749)
 * 28 January – James Finlayson, minister of the Church of Scotland (born 1758)
 * 13 February – William Fullarton, British Army officer, agriculturalist and colonial governor (born 1754; died in London)
 * 19 June – Alexander Dalrymple, hydrographer (born 1737)
 * 2 July – Robert Arnot, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (born 1744)
 * 21 August – John Adamson, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (born 1742)
 * 23 August – Robert Small, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, mathematician and astronomer (born 1732)
 * 5 September – John Home, Episcopalian minister, playwright and writer (born 1722)
 * 20 September – John Elliot, Royal Navy officer (born 1732)
 * 15 October – James Anderson of Hermiston, agriculturalist (born 1739)
 * 24 October – Francis Wemyss-Charteris, landowner (born 1723)

The arts

 * Walter Scott's poem Marmion: a tale of Flodden Field is published in Edinburgh.