1822 in Scotland

Incumbents

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Sir William Rae, Bt
• Solicitor General for Scotland – James Wedderburn; then John Hope

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session – Lord Granton
• Lord Justice General – The Duke of Montrose
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Boyle

Events

• 10 January – Princes Street in Edinburgh is first given gas lighting.
• May – the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal, engineered by Hugh Baird, is opened throughout, from a terminus at Fountainbridge in Edinburgh to a junction with the Forth and Clyde Canal at Camelon near Falkirk, including Scotland's only canal tunnel and completion of Slateford Aqueduct; passenger boats have been operating on the canal from the beginning of the year.
• July – the Royal Association of Contributors to the National Monument of Scotland is incorporated; the foundation stone is laid in Edinburgh on 27 August.
• 15–29 August – visit of King George IV to Scotland, largely arranged by Sir Walter Scott, first appearance of the monarch here since 1651.
• 23–24 October – the Caledonian Canal, engineered by Thomas Telford, is opened throughout, linking the east and west coasts through the Great Glen from Clachnaharry on the Beauly Firth near Inverness to Corpach on Loch Linnhe near Fort William; the passenger steamboat Stirling Castle operates through the canal.
• Cartland Bridge is completed to the design of Thomas Telford, crossing above the Mouse Water near Lanark.
• The Highland Show is first staged.
• The old town of Cullen, Moray, is demolished.
• The façade of Register House in Princes Street, Edinburgh, is completed to the design of Robert Reid.
• The Assembly Rooms, Aberdeen, designed by Archibald Simpson, are built.

Births

• 9 February – Francis Cadell, explorer in Australasia
• 13 February – James B. Beck, U.S. Senator
• 12 March – William Fettes Douglas, painter
• 22 March – Jane Miller Thengberg, pioneer of female education in Sweden
• 8 June – Hugh Findlay, Mormon missionary
• 26 July – Robert William Thomson, engineer, inventor of the bicycle tyre
• 1 August – James Grant, author
• 10 September – Alexander Ferrier Mitchell, ecclesiastical historian and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
• 1 December – Andrew Allan, shipowner
• 2 December – David Masson, literary biographer and historian
• 6 December – David Stirling, architect in Nova Scotia
• Probable date – Stewart McPherson, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross

Deaths

• 27 March – Sir Alexander Boswell, 1st Baronet, politician, poet, songwriter and antiquary, killed in duel
• 29 March – Ewen MacLachlan, Gaelic poet and scholar
• Hugh Robertson, musical instrument maker

The arts

• March – The Noctes Ambrosianae, imaginary colloquies, begin to appear in Blackwood's Magazine.
• October – English actor Edmund Kean acquires an estate on the Isle of Bute.
• Henry Raeburn is knighted and appointed royal limner; he is present in Edinburgh for the royal visit.
• Sir Walter Scott's novels The Pirate and The Fortunes of Nigel are published anonymously, together with the poem "Halidon Hill".
• Lorenzo Bartolini's marble sculpture is completed for the subjects' uncle, George Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll.