1871 in Scotland

Events from the year 1871 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – George Young
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Andrew Rutherfurd-Clark

Judiciary

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

Events

 * 7 March – the first rugby international, played in Edinburgh, results in a 4–1 win by Scotland over England.
 * 26 May – Parliament passes the Bank Holidays Act which creates five annual bank holidays in Scotland.
 * 1 August – the Arlington Swimming Club, designed by John Burnet, opens in the district of Charing Cross, Glasgow.
 * 6 November – the Edinburgh Street Tramways Company begins operating horsecars, the first tram system in Scotland.
 * 10 November – missing Scottish explorer and missionary Dr. David Livingstone is located by journalist Henry Morton Stanley in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika.
 * Patent Asbestos Manufacturing Co. established in Glasgow, perhaps the first such plant in the U.K.
 * Thomas Lipton opens his first grocery shop, in Glasgow.

Births

 * 21 January – Ernest Kitto, cricketer in New Zealand (died 1897 at sea)
 * 27 January – Samuel Peploe, painter (died 1935)
 * 17 February
 * John A. Gilruth, veterinary surgeon and colonial administrator (died 1937 in Australia)
 * Peter Corsar Anderson, golfer (died 1955)
 * 10 September – Thomas Adams, urban planner (died 1940)
 * 12 September – John Campbell, international footballer (died 1947)
 * Lachlan Grant, physician (died 1945)
 * Thomas W. Lamb, theatre architect in the United States (died 1942)

Deaths

 * 5 February – James Munro, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross (born 1826)
 * 17 March – Robert Chambers, publisher and geologist (born 1802)
 * 20 April – Samuel Halkett, librarian (born 1814)
 * 6 September – James Burns, shipowner (born 1789)
 * 22 October – Roderick Murchison, geologist (born 1792)

The arts

 * William Alexander's realist novel Johnny Gibb of Gushetneuk is published in book form (having been serialised in the Aberdeen Free Press 1869-70).
 * William Black's novel A Daughter of Heth is published.