1849 in Scotland

Events from the year 1849 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 Glencorse

Events

 * 19 February – Theatre Royal disaster: 65 people, almost all under the age of 20, are crushed to death in a panic caused by a small fire in the Theatre Royal, Dunlop Street, Glasgow.
 * 16 July – Portpatrick to Donaghadee packet service withdrawn.
 * 5 October – after three years construction, the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse oil light is first exhibited.
 * 1 November – Buchanan Street railway station opened in Glasgow by the Caledonian Railway.
 * Pollokshields is established as a Glasgow southside suburb by the Stirling-Maxwell family and set out or 'feued' by Edinburgh architect David Rhind.
 * The drapers' store of Arthur & Fraser, predecessor of the House of Fraser, is established in Glasgow by Hugh Fraser and James Arthur.
 * The construction of Cox Brothers' Camperdown Works in Lochee begins.

Births

 * 27 May – Catherine Cranston, tearoom proprietor (died 1934)
 * 24 September – Cathcart William Methven, harbour engineer and painter (died 1925 in South Africa)
 * 23 October – James Reid, physician (died 1923)
 * 29 December – William Cunningham, economist and economic historian (died 1919)

Deaths

 * 5 March – David Scott, historical painter (born 1806)
 * 3 July – Anthony Todd Thomson, physician and pioneer of dermatology (born 1778)