1888 in Scotland

Incumbents

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

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – John Macdonald until October; then James Robertson
• Solicitor General for Scotland – James Robertson; then Moir Tod Stormonth Darling

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Glencorse
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Moncreiff, then Lord Kingsburgh

Events

• 9 January – Crofters War: Aignish riot – Dispossessed crofters on Lewis face armed troops.
• 15 March – transatlantic liner is launched at John Brown & Company's shipyard at Clydebank.
• 8 May–November – International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry at Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow.
• July–August – first "Race to the North": Operators of the West and East Coast Main Line railways accelerate their services between London and Edinburgh.
• 28 May – Celtic Football Club play their first official match, beating Rangers 5–2 in Glasgow.
• 25 August – first Scottish Labour Party founded.
• 24 September – Stock exchange opened at Greenock.
• 15 October – Dundee Institute of Technology, predecessor of Abertay University, opens.
• c. December – completion of first stage of Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art.
• Lancashire textile machinery manufacturer John Bullough purchases the isle of Rùm.
• Opening of Carstairs House Tramway, a private railway powered by hydroelectricity and the first permanent electric railway in Scotland.

Births

• 3 January – James Bridie, playwright
• 13 February – Andrew Dewar Gibb, lawyer and Scottish National Party politician
• 8 March – John Nicholson, footballer
• 19 April – Walter Elliot, Unionist politician
• 6 June – Scottie Wilson, né Louis Freeman, artist
• 7 June – Hilda Matheson, pioneering radio talks producer, born in London
• 7 July – Edith Hughes, née Burnet, architect
• 14 August – John Logie Baird, engineer and inventor
• 5 September – Jack Miles, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Australia
• 7 October – Cecil Coles, composer
• Approximate date – Alexander MacRae, clothing manufacturer

Deaths

• 10 January – James Campbell Walker, Scottish architect
• May – James Salmon, architect
• 30 May – William Hay, architect
• 4 August – Lord Douglas Gordon, Liberal MP

Art