1847 in Scotland

Events from the year 1847 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Andrew Rutherfurd
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Thomas Maitland

Judiciary

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

Events

 * 28 April – the brig Exmouth carrying emigrants from Derry bound for Quebec is wrecked off Islay with only three survivors from more than 250 on board.
 * May – The congregations of the United Secession Church unite with most of those of the Relief Church to form the United Presbyterian Church.
 * 4 May – Glenalmond College opens its doors.
 * 17 May – Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway extends through Scotland Street Tunnel to a new southern terminus in Princes Street, Edinburgh.
 * 17 August – Queen Victoria arrives in HMY Victoria and Albert off Greenock at the start of a visit to Scotland.
 * 18 September – Educational Institute of Scotland formally constituted as a teachers' union "for the purpose of promoting sound learning and of advancing the interests of education in Scotland".
 * 4–8 November – James Young Simpson discovers the anaesthetic properties of chloroform and first uses it, successfully, on a patient, in an obstetric case in Edinburgh.
 * 23 November – the Otago Association ship Philip Laing sets sail from Greenock carrying settlers, mostly from the Free Church of Scotland, bound for Port Chalmers in New Zealand.
 * The Ordnance Survey confirms Ben Nevis as the highest mountain in the British Isles, ahead of Ben Macdui.
 * Michael Nairn begins manufacture of floorcloth at Kirkcaldy.
 * Thomas Guthrie publishes A Plea for Ragged Schools in Edinburgh.

Births

 * 29 January – John Ramsay, 13th Earl of Dalhousie, KT, Liberal politician, former Secretary for Scotland (died 1887)
 * 8 February – Lord Francis Douglas, mountaineer (killed 1865 on the Matterhorn)
 * 13 February – Sir Robert McAlpine, 1st Baronet, "Concrete Bob", founder of construction firm Sir Robert McAlpine (died 1934)
 * 3 March – Alexander Graham Bell, scientist and inventor (died 1922 in Nova Scotia)
 * 28 March – Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson, art critic (died 1900)
 * 27 April – Archibald Orr-Ewing, MP (died 1893)
 * 2 July – Andrew Gray, physicist and mathematician (died 1925)
 * 28 July – James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford, politician, astronomer and bibliophile (died 1913)
 * 3 August – John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, KT, GCMG, GCVO, PC, former Governor General of Canada (died 1934)
 * 22 August – Alexander Mackenzie, composer (died 1935)
 * 12 September – John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, KT, landowner and Rector of the University of St Andrews (died 1900)

Deaths

 * 23 March – Archibald Simpson, architect (born 1790)
 * 31 May – Thomas Chalmers, mathematician and a leader of the Free Church of Scotland (born 1780)
 * 7 June – David Mushet, metallurgist (born 1772; died in Monmouth)
 * 9 August – Andrew Combe, physician and phrenologist (born 1797)
 * 29 August – William Simson, painter best known as a landscapist (born 1798 or 1799; died in London)
 * 20 November – Henry Francis Lyte, Anglican divine and hymn-writer (born 1793; died in Nice)
 * 7 December – Robert Liston, pioneering surgeon (born 1794; died in London)

The arts

 * R. M. Ballantyne returns to Edinburgh from Canada.
 * Charles Lees paints The Golfers.
 * The Sobieski Stuarts' fictional Tales of the Century: or Sketches of the romance of history between the years 1746 and 1846 is published.