Events from the year 1854 in Scotland.

• 1 January – Victoria Bridge, Glasgow, opened over the River Clyde at Stockwell Street, replacing the Bishop's Bridge.^[1]
• July – first voyage by a seagoing steamship fitted with a compound steam engine, the screw steamer Brandon, built on the River Clyde by John Elder.^[2]
• 10 August – Merchant Shipping Act 1854 vests management of Scottish lighthouses in the Northern Lighthouse Board (among other provisions).
• 15 September – new North Ronaldsay lighthouse, designed by Alan Stevenson, first illuminated.
• 20 September – Aberdeen Kittybrewster railway station opened to serve the Great North of Scotland Railway main line to Keith.
• 11 October – temporary North Unst Lighthouse on Muckle Flugga (Shetland), designed by brothers Thomas and David Stevenson, first illuminated.
• 24 October – The Thin Red Line: a military action by the Sutherland Highlanders red-coated 93rd (Highland) Regiment at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War.^[3] Pipe Major John MacLeod has during this campaign transcribed the tune "The Green Hills of Tyrol" for the bagpipes.^[4]
• November – The Orcadian newspaper begins publication in Kirkwall.
• Brown and Polson's patent corn flour first produced, in Paisley.^[5]

• 27 January – George Alexander Gibson, physician and geologist (died 1913)
• 16 February – Horatio Brown, Nice-born historian of Venice (died 1926 in Italy)
• 31 March – Dugald Clerk, mechanical engineer, inventor of the two-stroke engine (died 1932 in England)
• 17 May – Donald MacAlister, physician and academic (died 1934 in England)
• 8 June – Eustace Balfour, architect (died 1911)
• 21 July – David Alan Stevenson, lighthouse designer (died 1938)
• 21 August – James Paterson, painter (died 1932)
• 17 September – David Dunbar Buick, automobile engineer (died 1929 in the United States)
• 2 October – Patrick Geddes, town planner (died 1932 in France)
• 22 October – Robert Urie, steam locomotive engineer (died 1937)
• 27 October – William Alexander Smith, businessman and founder of the Boys' Brigade (died 1914 in England)
• Cynicus (Martin Anderson), satirical cartoonist and postcard publisher (died 1932)
• William Lithgow, shipbuilder (died 1908)
• Neil Kennedy, Lord Kennedy, Chairman of the Scottish Land Court 1912-18 (died 1918)

• 17 February – William Mitchell, coalowner (born 1781)
• 3 April – John Wilson, writer (born 1785)
• 19 September – Peter Buchan, printer and collector of folk literature (born 1790)
• 6 October – Archibald Bell, lawyer and writer (born 1776)
• 25 November – John Gibson Lockhart, writer and editor (born 1794)

• Timeline of Scottish history
• 1854 in Ireland