1859 in Scotland

Events from the year 1859 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Charles Baillie until April; then David Mure until June; then James Moncreiff
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – David Mure; then George Patton; then Edward Maitland

Judiciary

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

Events

 * 2 February – a Crinan Canal reservoir dam bursts.
 * 21 April – the Dunfermline Press begins publication.
 * 14 October – Glasgow Town Council's Loch Katrine public water supply scheme officially opened.
 * 23 December – National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, a predecessor of the National Museum of Scotland, officially inaugurated in Queen Street, Edinburgh.
 * Muirkirk becomes the first town in Britain to have gas lighting.
 * St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society opens its first shop in Edinburgh.
 * Robertson's "Golden Shred" marmalade first produced, in Paisley.
 * First whaler purpose-built with a steam engine, the Narwhal from Stephen's shipyard at Dundee.

Births

 * 27 January – James Grierson, British Army lieutenant general (died on service 1914 in France)
 * 8 March – Kenneth Grahame, author best known for The Wind in the Willows (died 1932 in England)
 * 10 March – Dugald Sutherland MacColl, painter and curator (died 1948 in London)
 * 25 March – John Bruce Glasier, socialist politician (died 1920)
 * 22 May – Arthur Conan Doyle, physician and fiction writer best known for his stories about the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes (died 1930 in England)
 * 10 June – James Guthrie, painter (died 1930)
 * 8 July – Annie Shepherd Swan, novelist (died 1943)
 * 9 September – William James Cullen, Lord Cullen, judge (died 1941)
 * 24 September – S. R. Crockett, novelist (died 1914 in France)
 * 25 October – Allan MacDonald, Roman Catholic priest, poet, folklore collector and activist (died 1905)
 * 18 November – James Nairn, painter (died 1904 in New Zealand)
 * Thomas Corsan Morton, painter (died 1928)

Deaths

 * 6 February – Jane Stirling, pianist, student of Chopin (born 1804)
 * 21 March – Angus MacKay, piper (born 1813)
 * 19 September – John Pringle Nichol, scientist (born 1804)
 * 22 September – William Alison, physician and social reformer (born 1790)
 * 20 November – Mountstuart Elphinstone, statesman and historian (born 1779)
 * 22 November – George Wilson, chemist and professor of technology (born 1818)

The arts

 * 26 August – Jules Verne arrives in Edinburgh to begin his first visit to Scotland.
 * John Brown's short story "Rab and his Friends" is published.