1831 in Scotland

• Lord Advocate – Francis Jeffrey
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Henry Cockburn

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

• Spring – the 12th-century Lewis chessmen are found in a sand-bank on the Isle of Lewis.
• 19–21 March – one of Goldsworthy Gurney’s steam road coaches runs from Edinburgh to Glasgow.The Glasgow Herald 25 March 1831.
• May – Wellington Suspension Bridge over River Dee at Aberdeen opened to all traffic.
• 10 May – first steam locomotive to be built in Glasgow completed by Murdoch, Aitken & Co. for the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway.The Glasgow Courier 12 May 1831.
• Mid-May – mineral traffic over Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway commences.{{cite book|first=Don|last=Martin|title=The Garnkirk & Glasgow Railway|publisher=Strathkelvin District Libraries & Museums|series=Auld Kirk Museum Publications, no. 6|year=1981|isbn=0-904966-06-2|pages=14–19}}
• 1 June
• A regular horse-drawn passenger service between Leaend at Airdrie and Glasgow over the Ballochney, Monkland and Kirkintilloch and Garnkirk and Glasgow Railways commences.
• One of Goldsworthy Gurney’s steam road coaches suffers a boiler explosion in Glasgow.The Glasgow Courier 4 June 1831.
• 6 June – first iron steamboat to be launched on the River Clyde, Fairy Queen by John Neilson & Sons.The Glasgow Herald 10 June 1831.
• 4 July – opening of first section of Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway, from St Leonards to Craighall,{{cite book|first=John|last=Thomas|author-link=John Thomas (author)|title=A regional history of the railways of Great Britain, volume VI: Scotland – the Lowlands and the Borders|location=Newton Abbot|publisher=David & Charles|year=1971|isbn=0-7153-5408-6|page=234}} including St Leonards Tunnel, Scotland's earliest tunnel on a public railway, and the early cast iron bridge at Braid Burn (erected in March).
• August – the Dugald Stewart Monument in Edinburgh, designed by W. H. Playfair, is completed.
• 1 August – the Roman Catholic St Thomas's Church, Keith, is opened for worship.
• 27 September – formal opening of Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway: locomotive St Rollox hauls Scotland’s first steam-worked passenger train from the Townhead terminus at Glasgow to Gartsherrie.
• 16 December – opening of first section of Dundee and Newtyle Railway, the first public railway in the north of Scotland (horse worked).{{Awdry-RailCo}}
• 23 December – the second cholera pandemic (1829–51) reaches Scotland.{{cite web|title=Chronology of Scottish History|work=A Timeline of Scottish History|publisher=Rampant Scotland|url=http://www.rampantscotland.com/timeline/1899.htm|access-date=2014-07-30}}
• The Ardrossan and Johnstone Railway opens as a waggonway from Johnstone to Kilwinning.{{cite book|last=Lewin, Henry Grote|year=1925|title=Early British Railways: A short history of their origin and development 1801–1844|location=London|publisher=The Locomotive Publishing Co|oclc=11064369|pages=17–18}}
• Dunnet Head lighthouse, designed by Robert Stevenson, is built.
• North Church in Aberdeen, designed by John Smith, is opened.
• The Burns Monument, Edinburgh (on Calton Hill), is designed by Thomas Hamilton.
• William Wallace invents the eidograph.{{cite book|last1=Waterston|first1=Charles D.|last2=Shearer|first2=A. Macmillan|title=Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002: Biographical Index|url=http://www.rse.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=2012-01-23|volume=2|page=964 |publisher=Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-902198-84-5 |date=July 2006}}
• Glenugie distillery is established as Invernettie at Peterhead by Donald McLeod;{{cite book|title=The Wordsworth Dictionary of Drink|last=Halley|first=Ned|year=2005|location=Ware|publisher=Wordsworth Editions|isbn=978-1-84022-302-6|page=257|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5X6oVI-qngwC&dq=Glenugie&pg=PA257|access-date=2008-09-13}} Talisker distillery is opened at Carbost, Talisker, Skye, by Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill.

• 31 January – Alexander Balmain Bruce, theologian (died 1899)
• February – George Stewart, recipient of the Victoria Cross (died 1868 in England)
• 31 March – Archibald Scott Couper, organic chemist (died 1892)
• 2 April – David MacGibbon, architect (died 1902)
• 26 April – James Donaldson, classical scholar, educationalist and theological writer (died 1915)
• 28 April – Peter Tait, mathematical physicist (died 1901)
• 7 May – Richard Norman Shaw, architect (died 1912 in England)
• 28 May – Richard B. Angus, financier (died 1922 in Canada)
• 13 June – James Clerk Maxwell, physicist (died 1879 in England)
• 24 June – Robert Wallace, writer and politician (died 1899 in England)
• 3 July – Edmund Yates, writer (died 1894 in England)
• 18 July – John Skelton, lawyer, author and administrator (died 1897)
• 17 August – John McLaren, politician and judge (died 1910)
• 13 September – Andrew Noble, physicist (died 1915)
• 12 October – Helen Acquroff, pianist, singer, poet and music teacher (died 1887){{cite book |editor1-last=Ewan |editor1-first=Elizabeth |editor2-last=Pipes |editor2-first=Rose |editor3-last=Rendall |editor3-first=Jane |editor4-last=Reynolds |editor4-first=Siân |title=The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9781474436281 |page=4}}
• 17 October – Isa Craig, née Knox, poet (died 1903 in England)
• 23 November – David MacKay, recipient of the Victoria Cross (died 1880)
• 25 December – John Bartholomew, cartographer (died 1893)

• 14 January – Henry Mackenzie, novelist (born 1745)
• 4 February – William Ritchie, newspaper editor (born 1781)
• 14 February – Robert Brown, agriculturalist (born 1757)
• 22 March – William Symington, engineer and steamboat builder (born 1764; died in London)
• May – James Campbell, army officer (born 1745)
• 1 July – Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald, industrial chemist (born 1748; died in Paris)
• 16 August – Sir Hugh Innes, politician (born c. 1764)
• 17 August – Patrick Nasmyth, landscape painter (born 1787)
• Joseph Lowe, economist

• James Hogg publishes Songs, by the Ettrick Shepherd.{{cite book|editor=Cox, Michael|title=The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|isbn=0-19-860634-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/conciseoxfordchr00coxm}}
• The Literary and Commercial Society of Glasgow is last known to be active.

{{Portal|Scotland}}

• 1831 in Ireland

{{Reflist}}

{{Years in Scotland |state=collapsed}}

Scotland

Category:1830s in Scotland