1880 in Scotland

Events from the year 1880 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – William Watson until May; then John McLaren
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – John Macdonald; then John Blair Balfour

Judiciary

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

Events

 * February – telephones introduced in Edinburgh.
 * 27 April – 1880 United Kingdom general election: The Liberal Party defeat the Conservatives by a substantial majority following the 'Midlothian campaign' by William Ewart Gladstone who is returned as Member of Parliament for Midlothian and becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
 * 1 July – the Callander and Oban Railway is opened throughout to Oban.
 * October – the SS Ferret is fraudulently chartered at Greenock and taken to Australia.
 * A. & R. Scott of Glasgow begin producing the predecessor of Scott's Porage Oats.

Births

 * 29 March – Bobby Templeton, footballer (died 1919)
 * 4 April – William Russell Flint, watercolourist (died 1969)
 * 30 April – Charles Exeter Devereux Crombie, cartoonist (died 1967)
 * 6 May – Edmund Ironside, British Army officer (died 1959)
 * 14 May – B. C. Forbes, financial journalist (died 1954 in the United States)
 * 1 July – Noel Skelton, Unionist politician, journalist and intellectual (died 1935)
 * 13 August – Mary Macarthur, trade unionist (died 1921)
 * September – Peter Kyle, footballer (died 1961)
 * 23 September – John Boyd Orr, physician and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1971)
 * 15 October – Marie Stopes, author, palaeobotanist, campaigner for women's rights and pioneer in the field of birth control (died 1958)
 * 18 October – Alexander Livingstone, Liberal politician (died 1950)
 * Margaret McCoubrey, suffragette and pacifist in Belfast (died 1955 in Northern Ireland)
 * Dorothy Carleton Smyth, artist and designer (died 1933)
 * Preston Watson, aviator (killed in military aviation accident 1915)

Deaths

 * 3 April – John Laing, bibliographer and Free Church minister (born 1809)
 * 31 December – John Stenhouse, chemist (born 1809)

Sport

 * Scottish Grand National first run under this name.
 * 1870s Rangers F.C. seasons
 * 1879–80 Heart of Midlothian F.C. season
 * 1879–80 Hibernian F.C. season
 * 1879–80 Scottish Cup
 * 1880 Open Championship
 * 1880–81 Scottish Cup
 * 1880–81 Heart of Midlothian F.C. season
 * 1880–81 Hibernian F.C. season

Establishments

 * Dykehead F.C.
 * East Craigie F.C.
 * Forth Corinthian Yacht Club
 * Parkhead F.C.
 * Port Glasgow Athletic F.C.
 * Selkirk F.C.
 * Strachur and District Shinty Club

The arts

 * William McGonagall produces his doggerel poem "The Tay Bridge Disaster" to commemorate the previous December's Tay Bridge disaster.