1791 in Scotland

Incumbents

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Robert Dundas of Arniston
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Robert Blair

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Succoth
• Lord Justice General – The Viscount Stormont
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Braxfield

Events

• 22 August – Galloway Association of Glasgow founded as the Glasgow Galloway Brotherly Society.
• Agriculturalist Sir John Sinclair imports ewes of Cheviot sheep from the Northumberland/Scottish Borders to Caithness and Sutherland where they will form the basis of the North Country Cheviot breed.

Publications

• Francis Grose – The Antiquities of Scotland, volume 2
• Sir John Sinclair – Statistical Account of Scotland, begins publication, introducing the term Statistics into English

Births

• April – William Mackenzie, ophthalmologist
• 21 June – Robert Napier, engineer, "Father of Clyde Shipbuilding"
• 4 September – Robert Knox, surgeon, anatomist and zoologist
• 7 November – Robert Nasmyth, dental surgeon

Deaths

• 29 March – Elspeth Buchan, millenarian prophet, founder of the Buchanites
• 7 July – Thomas Blacklock, poet
• Approximate date – Alan Breck Stewart, Jacobite

The arts

• Poet Robert Burns gives up farming for a full-time post as an exciseman in Dumfries, writes "Ae Fond Kiss", "The Banks O' Doon" and "Sweet Afton", and publishes his last major poem, the narrative "Tam o' Shanter".

Sport

• Burntisland Golf Club founded.