1846 in Scotland

Events from the year 1846 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Duncan McNeill until July; then Andrew Rutherfurd
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Adam Anderson; then Thomas Maitland

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Boyle
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Hope

Events

 * January – African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass arrives in Scotland from Ireland to continue his speaking tour of the United Kingdom.
 * 22 June – the North British Railway is opened to public traffic between Edinburgh and Berwick-upon-Tweed, the first line to cross the border between Scotland and England. Edinburgh Waverley railway station is opened.
 * 15 August – inauguration of Scott Monument in Edinburgh.
 * 21 December – Scottish-born surgeon Robert Liston carries out the first operation under anesthesia in Europe, at University College Hospital in London.
 * Start of Highland Potato Famine.
 * English tourism pioneer Thomas Cook brings 350 people from Leicester on a tour of Scotland.
 * Lighthouses at Covesea Skerries, Chanonry Point and Cromarty (all designed by Alan Stevenson) first illuminated.
 * New College, Edinburgh, opens its doors as a theological training college for the Free Church of Scotland.
 * Catherine Murray, Countess of Dunmore, commissions "the Paisley Sisters" of Strond on Harris to weave tweed in the Clan Murray tartan, origin of the commercial Harris Tweed industry.
 * Engineer Robert William Thomson is granted his first patent for a pneumatic tyre, in France.
 * 14-year-old James Clerk Maxwell's first scientific paper is presented to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
 * The Dewar's Scotch whisky brand is created by John Dewar, Sr.
 * Charles William George St John's Short Sketches of the Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands is published.

Births

 * 1 January – Edward Pinnington, art historian, biographer and journalist (died 1921)
 * 10 February – James Burns, shipowner (died 1923 in Australia)
 * 28 February – John F. McIntosh, steam locomotive engineer (died 1918)
 * 21 June – Marion Adams-Acton ("Jeanie Hering"), born Marion Jean Hamilton, novelist (died 1928 in London)

Deaths

 * 12 February – Henry Duncan, minister, geologist and social reformer (born 1774)
 * 23 May – Charles Ewart, soldier (born 1769)
 * Andrew Innes, last survivor of the Buchanites

The arts

 * William Motherwell's Poetical Works are published posthumously.
 * Carolina, Lady Nairne's Lays from Strathern are published posthumously, revealing her authorship. This includes the Jacobite song "The Hundred Pipers".