1888 in Scotland

Events from the year 1888 in Scotland.

Incumbents

 * Secretary for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – The Marquess of Lothian

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – John Macdonald until October; then James Robertson
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – James Robertson; then Moir Tod Stormonth Darling

Judiciary

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

Events

 * 9 January – Crofters War: Aignish riot – Dispossessed crofters on Lewis face armed troops.
 * 15 March – transatlantic liner SS City of New York is launched at John Brown & Company's shipyard at Clydebank.
 * May–November – International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry at Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow.
 * July–August – first "Race to the North": Operators of the West and East Coast Main Line railways accelerate their services between London and Edinburgh.
 * 28 May – Celtic Football Club play their first official match, beating Rangers 5–2 in Glasgow.
 * 25 August – first Scottish Labour Party founded.
 * 24 September – Stock exchange opened at Greenock.
 * 15 October – Dundee Institute of Technology, predecessor of Abertay University, opens.
 * c. December – completion of first stage of Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art.
 * Lancashire textile machinery manufacturer John Bullough purchases the isle of Rùm.
 * Opening of Carstairs House Tramway, a private railway powered by hydroelectricity and the first permanent electric railway in Scotland.

Births

 * 3 January – James Bridie (O. H. Mavor), playwright (died 1951)
 * 13 February – Andrew Dewar Gibb, lawyer and Scottish National Party politician (died 1974)
 * 8 March – John Nicholson, footballer (died 1970 in England)
 * 19 April – Walter Elliot, Unionist politician (died 1958)
 * 6 June – Scottie Wilson, né Louis Freeman, artist (died 1972 in England)
 * 7 June – Hilda Matheson, pioneering radio talks producer, born in London (died 1940 in England)
 * 7 July – Edith Hughes, née Burnet, architect (died 1971)
 * 14 August – John Logie Baird, engineer and inventor (died 1946)
 * 5 September – Jack Miles, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Australia (died 1969 in Australia)
 * 7 October – Cecil Coles, composer (killed in action 1918)
 * Approximate date – Alexander MacRae, clothing manufacturer (died 1938 in Australia)

Deaths

 * 10 January – James Campbell Walker, Scottish architect (born 1821)
 * May – James Salmon, architect (born 1805)
 * 30 May – William Hay, architect (born 1818)
 * 4 August – Lord Douglas Gordon, Liberal MP (born 1851)

Art
J. M. Barrie's Auld Licht Idylls is published.