1721 in Scotland
Events from the year 1721 in Scotland.
Incumbents
Law officers
- Lord Advocate – Robert Dundas
- Solicitor General for Scotland – Walter Stewart; then John Sinclair and Charles Binning
Judiciary
- Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord North Berwick
- Lord Justice General – Lord Ilay
- Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Grange
Events
- Battle of Glen Affric: Men of the Jacobite Clan Mackenzie and Clan Macrae ambush men of the pro-Hanoverian Clan Ross led by William Ross, 6th of Easter Fearn when he attempts to collect rents on the Mackenzie estates.
- Battle of Coille Bhan: British Army troops of Colonel Kirk's Regiment under Captain McNeill drive off an attack from the Clan Mackenzie but again fail to collect rents on their estates.
- Ruthven Barracks completed.
- Chandos Chair of Medicine and Anatomy established at the University of St Andrews.
- Robert Wodrow publishes The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland.
Births
- 21 January – James Murray, military officer and colonial administrator
- 5 March – John Adam, architect
- 19 March – Tobias Smollett, novelist
- 24 June – Francis Garden, Lord Gardenstone, judge
- 14 July – John Douglas, Anglican bishop of Salisbury and man of letters
- 19 September – William Robertson, historian and Principal of the University of Edinburgh
- 3 October – John Skinner, Episcopalian minister, historian, poet and songwriter
- 5 October – William Wilkie, Presbyterian minister, natural philosopher and poet
- 6 December – James Elphinston, philologist
- Earliest likely date – James Grainger, physician, poet and translator
Deaths
- 14 January – William Johnstone, 1st Marquess of Annandale
- 13 December – Alexander Selkirk, sailor and castaway