1883 in Scotland

Events from the year 1883 in Scotland.

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – John Blair Balfour
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Alexander Asher

Judiciary

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

Events

 * 20 January – Fenian dynamite campaign: In Glasgow, bombs explode at Tradeston Gasworks, Possil Street Bridge and Buchanan Street railway station; about a dozen people are injured.
 * 28 April – the first rugby sevens tournament is played at Melrose RFC.
 * 3 June – Sabbatarian riot at Stromeferry: the local fishing community prevent the loading of fish (caught by east coast fishermen) from Stornoway ships to railway on a Sunday.
 * 3 July – SS Daphne sinks on launch at Alexander Stephen and Sons' Linthouse shipyard, leaving 124 dead.
 * 29 August – Dunfermline Carnegie Library, the first Carnegie library in the world, is opened in Andrew Carnegie's hometown, Dunfermline.
 * 4 October – the Boys' Brigade is founded in Glasgow.
 * November–December – the Tay Whale (a humpback) appears in the Firth of Tay; on 31 December it is harpooned but escapes, dying later.
 * Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank at Dumbarton completed.
 * Edinburgh Mathematical Society founded.

Sport

 * Curling
 * Scotland's first boys' club is established in Wanlockhead.
 * Rugby union
 * Scotland take part in the inaugural Home Nations Championship.
 * Scotlands first home international game played at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh.
 * First match against Wales, hosted at St. Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea; Scotland win by three goals to one.

Births

 * 17 January – Compton Mackenzie, author and co-founder in 1928 of the Scottish National Party (born in England; died 1972)
 * 27 January – James Lithgow, industrialist (died 1952)
 * 24 March – Dorothy Campbell, golfer (died 1945 in the United States)
 * 12 April – Francis Cadell, Colourist painter (died 1937)
 * 15 May – Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, British Army officer and Unionist politician (killed in action 1915 in France)
 * 5 June – Mary Helen Young, nurse and resistance fighter during World War II (died 1945 in Germany)
 * 9 July – John Watson, advocate and sheriff, Solicitor General for Scotland 1929–31 (died 1944)
 * 21 August – Victor Fortune, British Army officer (died 1949)
 * 17 October – A. S. Neill, educationalist (died 1973 in England)
 * 17 December – David Powell, stage and silent film actor (died 1925 in the United States)

Deaths

 * 27 March – John Brown, royal servant (born 1826)
 * 8 May – John Miller, civil engineer (born 1805)
 * 20 May – William Chambers, publisher and politician (born 1800)
 * 2 July – John Strain, first Roman Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh (born 1810)
 * 9 August – Robert Moffat, missionary (born 1795)
 * David Rhind, architect (born 1808)

The arts

 * James Guthrie paints A Hind's Daughter and To Pastures New.