1890 in Scotland

Events from the year 1890 in Scotland.

Incumbents

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

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – James Robertson
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Moir Tod Stormonth Darling; then Sir Charles Pearson

Judiciary

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

Events

 * 11 February – the Partick by-election in Lanarkshire is won by the Liberal Unionist candidate James Parker Smith.
 * 4 March – the Forth Bridge (1,710 ft) is opened to rail traffic.
 * 15 May – new elected county councils in Scotland, created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, take up their powers. The County of Edinburgh formally adopts the title Midlothian; the formerly administratively separate counties of Ross and Cromarty are merged; former enclaves of Moray in Inverness-shire and vice versa are absorbed into the surrounding counties; and the Shetland county council formally adopts the spelling Zetland.
 * Tunnock's bakers established in Uddingston.
 * Construction of the village of Fortingall on Sir Donald Currie's Glenlyon Estate in Perthshire begins to "Arts and Crafts" vernacular designs by James MacLaren (died 20 October).
 * East End Exhibition opens in Glasgow and International Exhibition of Science, Art & Industry staged in Edinburgh.

The arts

 * William McGonagall's Poetic Gems published.

Births

 * 3 January – Willa Muir, born Wilhelmina Johnston Anderson, translator (died 1970)
 * 30 January – Andy Cunningham, international footballer (died 1973)
 * 10 September – Mortimer Wheeler, archaeologist (died 1976)
 * Mary Newbery Sturrock, artist and designer (died 1955)

Deaths

 * 3 May – James B. Beck, United States Senator from Kentucky (1877–1890) (born 1822)
 * 2 June – Sir George Burns, shipowner (born 1795)
 * 25 June – Sir James Gowans, architect and building contractor (born 1821)
 * 10 August – William Edward Baxter, businessman, travel writer and Liberal Member of Parliament for Montrose Burghs (1855–1885) (born 1825)
 * 22 November – William Bell Scott, artist and poet (born 1811)