Events from the year 1816 in Scotland.

• April – Highland Clearances: Factor Patrick Sellar is tried but acquitted at Inverness of culpable homicide during the mass expulsion of crofting tenants from Strathnaver in 1814.^[1]
• 21 May – Highland Society of London (established 1778) incorporated by Act of Parliament.
• 18 June – causeway, bridge and sluice across Loch Fleet at The Mound, designed by Thomas Telford, completed.
• 13 August – an earthquake in Inverness is the strongest ever in Scotland.^[2]
• 1 September – the Northern Lighthouse Board's new light on the Isle of May, designed by Robert Stevenson, is completed.^[3]
• The Nelson Monument, Edinburgh, on Calton Hill, is completed.
• Logie Bridge at Ferness completed to a design by Telford;^[4] as also is the bridge at Contin and the harbour at Portmahomack.
• Suspension footbridge erected over the Gala Water in Galashiels^[5] and upper arch bridge at Rumbling Bridge completed.
• David Brewster discovers stress birefringence.
• Rev. Robert Stirling obtains a U.K. patent for the Stirling hot air engine.
• Lagavulin distillery established on Islay.
• St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow, is completed as the city's first post-Reformation Roman Catholic church (architect: James Gillespie Graham).
• First Jewish community in Edinburgh in modern times established.
• The Edinburgh Races and Caledonian Hunt are held for the first time at Musselburgh Racecourse rather than on the sands of Leith.^[6][7]

• 5 January
  • James Brunlees, civil engineer (died 1892)
  • Daniel Wilson, archaeologist and academic (died 1892 in Canada)
• 11 January – Henry Robertson, railway promoter (died 1888 in Wales)
• 3 February – Archibald McKellar, politician in Ontario (died 1894 in Canada)
• 14 February – James Morison, evangelical (died 1893)
• 13 June – Charles Alexander, merchant and politician in Quebec (died 1905 in Canada)
• 1 September – James Drummond, historical painter and curator (died 1877)
• 16 September – Theodore Martin, writer (died 1909)
• 30 September – Archibald Sturrock, steam locomotive engineer (died 1909)
• 12 October – Alexander Bryson, scientist (died 1866)

• 22 February – Adam Ferguson, philosopher and historian (born 1723)
• 28 February – Archibald Bruce, theologian (born 1746)
• 14 June – Allan Maconochie, jurist (born 1748)
• 25 December – Hercules Ross, merchant in Jamaica (born 1745)

• Walter Scott's novels The Antiquary, The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality are published.
• The Elgin Marbles are purchased by the British government from Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, for the British Museum in London.

• Timeline of Scottish history
• 1816 in Ireland