1856 in Scotland

Events from the year 1856 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – James Moncreiff
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Edward Maitland

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Colonsay
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Glencorse

Events

 * 4 January – Faculty of Actuaries established.
 * February – an oak and a yew tree associated with William Wallace at his reputed birthplace of Elderslie are blown down in a storm.
 * 1 April – Aberdeen Waterloo railway station opens to serve the Great North of Scotland Railway main line to Keith.
 * November – James Clerk Maxwell takes up an appointment as Professor of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen.
 * 31 December – Lord Brougham's Act requires at least one party to a marriage contracted after this date to have been resident in Scotland for 21 days, putting a curb on Gretna Green marriage.
 * Trinity College, Glasgow, established as a Church College of the Free Church of Scotland.
 * Dunfermline claims city status in the United Kingdom by historical usage; the status is never officially recognised.
 * William McEwan opens McEwan's Fountain Brewery at Fountainbridge in Edinburgh.
 * The iron steamboat Thomas is built for service on the Forth and Clyde Canal, origin of the Clyde puffer.
 * The Clyde Model Yacht Club, a predecessor of the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club, is established.

Births

 * 30 May – James Pittendrigh Macgillivray, sculptor and poet (died 1938)
 * 5 July – Ion Keith-Falconer, road racing cyclist, Arabic scholar and missionary (died 1887 in Aden)
 * 15 August – Keir Hardie, socialist and labour leader (died 1915)
 * 13 September – Henry Halcro Johnston, botanist, army physician and rugby union international (died 1939)
 * 27 November – Matthew Stirling, locomotive engineer (died 1931 in Hull)
 * 1 December – Malcolm Smith, Liberal politician (died 1935)
 * William W. Naismith, mountaineer (died 1935)
 * William Robertson, industrialist (died 1923)

Deaths

 * August – James Bremner, shipbuilder and salvor (born 1784)
 * 30 August – John Ross, naval officer and Arctic explorer (born 1777)
 * 20 September – Samuel Morison Brown, chemist, poet and essayist (born 1817)
 * 23/24 December – Hugh Miller, geologist, by suicide (born 1802)
 * 25 February – George Don, botanist (born 1798)

The arts

 * McLellan Galleries opened in Glasgow.