1787 in Scotland

Events from the year 1787 in Scotland.

Incumbents

11 January – new Assembly Rooms opened in George Street, Edinburgh.
27 January – Bridge of Dun completed.{{cite web|title=Bridge Of Dun, Reference: LB4677|url=http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/hes/web/f?p=PORTAL:DESIGNATION:::::DES:LB4677|publisher=Historic Environment Scotland|access-date=2016-02-20}}
1 February – New Club, Edinburgh, founded as a private gentlemen's club.
June
Patrick Miller of Dalswinton demonstrates his design of manually-propelled paddleboat on the Firth of Forth.
Kennetpans Distillery begins to operate a condensing rotative stationary steam engine designed by James Watt, the first in Scotland.{{cite news|url=http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/people-places/ruined-whisky-distillery-gets-new-lease-of-life-1-3658303|title=Ruined whisky distillery gets new lease of life|work=The Scotsman|date=2015-01-12|access-date=2019-02-28}}
Summer – Calton weavers' strike. On 3 September, six of the Calton weavers are killed by troops.
1 December – Kinnaird Head Lighthouse first illuminated.
Catrine is developed on the River Ayr around one of the first cotton mills in Scotland by Claud Alexander of Ballochmyle in partnership with David Dale.{{cite book|last=Stenlake|first=Richard|title=A Lot o Genuine Folks and a Wheen o Rogues|year=2011|location=Catrine|publisher=Stenlake Publishing|isbn=9781840335347|pages=10–12}}
The Scotch Distilling Act imposes a tax on gin exported from Scotland to England.
Kerelaw House and Tarbat House built.

7 January – Patrick Nasmyth, landscape painter (died 1831 in London)
11 February – Alexander Maconochie, naval officer, geographer and penal reformer (died 1860 in England)
14 May – Alexander Laing, "the Brechin poet" (died 1857)
5 November – John Richardson naturalist, explorer and naval surgeon (died 1865 in England)
22 November – Robert Balmer, minister of the Secession Church (died 1844)
17 December – John Forbes, physician (died 1861 in England)
Susanna Hawkins, poet (died 1868)
Hugh Maxwell, lawyer and politician in New York (died 1873 in the United States)

2 March – Anne Mackintosh, Jacobite (born 1723)
6 June – Robert Duff, naval officer (born c. 1721)
19 June – John Brown, theologian (born 1722)
5 September – John Brown, portrait-draftsman and painter in Edinburgh (born 1749)
27 December – Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull, politician (born 1710)

17 April – the Edinburgh edition of Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is published by William Creech including a portrait of Burns by Alexander Nasmyth. The poet has great social success in the city's literary circles; 16-year-old Walter Scott meets him at the house of Adam Ferguson. Burns also writes the first version of "The Battle of Sherramuir" this year.
4 December – Burns meets Agnes Maclehose at a party given by Miss Erskine Nimmo.{{cite book|last=Hecht|first=Hans|year=1936|title=Robert Burns: The Man and His Work|location=London|publisher=William Hodge|page=106}}
The Scots Musical Museum begins publication.