1774 in Scotland

Centuries:	16th; 17th; 18th; 19th; 20th;
Decades:	1750s; 1760s; 1770s; 1780s; 1790s;
See also:	List of years in Scotland; Timeline of Scottish history; 1774 in: Great Britain • Wales • Elsewhere

Events from the year 1774 in Scotland.

Incumbents

27 June – foundation stone of General Register House in Edinburgh, designed by Robert Adam, is laid; the building will not be opened until 1788.^[1]
Dundas House in New Town, Edinburgh, designed by William Chambers, is completed.
Punitive laws against the Clan Gregor are repealed.^[2]
Roman Catholic chapel built on the site that will become St Peter's Church, Aberdeen.
The Schiehallion experiment is carried by Nevil Maskelyne out to determine the mean density of the Earth.^[3]

24 February – Archibald Constable, publisher (died 1827)
26 February – William Farquhar, soldier and administrator in the East India Company (died 1839)
3 June – Robert Tannahill, weaver poet (died 1810)
8 October – Henry Duncan, (Free) Church of Scotland minister, geologist and social reformer; founder of the savings bank movement (died 1846)
4 November – Robert Allan, weaver poet (died 1841 in New York)
8 November – Robert Reid, royal architect (died 1856)
12 November – Charles Bell, anatomist (died 1842 in England)
24 November – Thomas Dick, Secession Church minister and scientist (died 1857)
Robert Thom, hydraulic engineer (died 1847)

19 January – Thomas Gillespie, Presbyterian minister (born 1708)
16 October – Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet (born 1750; died in bedlam following head injury)

During this year's harvest, 15-year-old farm labourer Robert Burns is assisted by his contemporary Nelly Kilpatrick who inspires his first attempt at poetry, "O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass".

Musselburgh Golf Club established on Levenhall Links and the Old Club Cup is played for the first time.

^ McLintock, John (2009). "General Register House" (PDF). National Archives of Scotland. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
^ Way, George; Squire, Romily (1994). Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia. London: HarperCollins. pp. 220–221. ISBN 0004705475.
^ "An account of Observations made on the Mountain Schehallien for finding its attraction". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (London) 6 July 1775.