1881 in Scotland

Events from the year 1881 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – John McLaren until August; then John Blair Balfour
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – John Blair Balfour; then Alexander Asher

Judiciary

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

Events

 * 1 March – the Cunard Line's SS Servia, the first steel transatlantic liner, is launched at J. & G. Thomson's shipyard at Clydebank.
 * 12 March – Andrew Watson of Glasgow's Queen's Park F.C. (from a mixed Scottish/British Guianese background) captains the Scotland national football team in a 6–1 victory against England, becoming the world's first black international Association football player.
 * 1 July – formation, under the Childers Reforms of the British Army, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), Gordon Highlanders, Highland Light Infantry and Seaforth Highlanders.
 * 20/21 July – 58 men, the crews of ten fishing boats (mostly sixareens) from Yell, Shetland, are drowned in a sudden storm.
 * 25 August – Edinburgh Royal Review of Volunteers ("The Wet Review"): Large numbers of Volunteer Forces from all over Scotland parade before Queen Victoria in Holyrood Park on a day of prolonged heavy rainfall.
 * 14 October – the Eyemouth disaster ("Black Friday"): a severe storm strikes the Berwickshire coast; 189 fishermen die.
 * 21 December – the Aberdeen Line's SS Aberdeen, the first oceangoing ship successfully powered by a triple expansion steam engine, designed by Alexander Carnegie Kirk, is launched at Robert Napier and Sons' yard at Govan.
 * The remains of Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (died 1880), are stolen from the family crypt on the Dunecht estate.
 * Memorial cairn erected at the site of the Battle of Culloden (1746).
 * Bruichladdich distillery established on the Rinns of Islay.
 * Clydebank Co-operative Society formed.
 * Inverness Museum and Art Gallery originally opened.
 * Fettesian-Lorettonian Club established as a joint sporting club of the two named Edinburgh public schools, primarily for the playing of rugby union.

Births

 * 29 March – Charles Jarvis, soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1948)
 * 6 August – Alexander Fleming, biologist, pharmacologist and botanist (died 1955 in England)
 * 2 November – Tom Johnston, socialist politician (died 1965)
 * 6 November – Alfred David McAlpine, civil engineering contractor (died 1944)
 * 1 December – Alastair Denniston, cryptanalyst (died 1961 in England)
 * 25 December – Willie Gallacher, trade unionist and communist MP (died 1965)

Deaths

 * 22 August – John Hill Burton, advocate, historian and economist (born 1809)
 * 30 October – William Brodie, sculptor (born 1815)
 * 31 October – Alexander Macdonald, miner, trade unionist and Lib–Lab MP (born 1821)