1890 in Scotland
Events from the year 1890 in Scotland.
Incumbents
Law officers
- Lord Advocate – James Robertson
- Solicitor General for Scotland – Moir Tod Stormonth Darling; then Sir Charles Pearson
Judiciary
- Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Glencorse
- Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Kingsburgh
Events
- 11 February – the Partick by-election in Lanarkshire is won by the Liberal Unionist candidate James Parker Smith.
- 4 March – the Forth Bridge is opened to rail traffic.
- 15 May – new elected county councils in Scotland, created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, take up their powers. The County of Edinburgh formally adopts the title Midlothian; the formerly administratively separate counties of Ross and Cromarty are merged; former enclaves of Moray in Inverness-shire and vice versa are absorbed into the surrounding counties; and the Shetland county council formally adopts the spelling Zetland.
- Tunnock's bakers established in Uddingston.
- Construction of the village of Fortingall on Sir Donald Currie's Glenlyon Estate in Perthshire begins to "Arts and Crafts" vernacular designs by James MacLaren.
- East End Exhibition opens in Glasgow and International Exhibition of Science, Art & Industry staged in Edinburgh.
The arts
- William McGonagall's Poetic Gems published.
Births
- 3 January – Willa Muir, born Wilhelmina Johnston Anderson, translator
- 30 January – Andy Cunningham, international footballer
- 10 September – Mortimer Wheeler, archaeologist
- Mary Newbery Sturrock, artist and designer
Deaths
- 3 May – James B. Beck, United States Senator from Kentucky
- 2 June – Sir George Burns, shipowner
- 25 June – Sir James Gowans, architect and building contractor
- 10 August – William Edward Baxter, businessman, travel writer and Liberal Member of Parliament for Montrose Burghs
- 22 November – William Bell Scott, artist and poet