Events from the year 1874 in Scotland.

• 17 January – Victoria Swing Bridge in Leith completed, the longest swing bridge in Britain at this date.
• 27 January – Bo'ness Junction rail crash near Falkirk on the North British Railway: 16 killed in a collision.
• 27 February – four crew of Stonehaven life-boat lost on service.
• 5 March – in the general election, former Scottish coal miner Alexander Macdonald (Lib–Lab) is elected for the English seat of Stafford, among the first Members of Parliament from a working class background.
• 21 March – the first ever final of the Scottish Cup is won by Queen's Park F.C. who beat Clydesdale 2–0.^[1]
• 21 May – foundation stone of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (Episcopal) laid by Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, Duke of Buccleuch.
• 28 July – the Sutherland and Caithness Railway is opened through to Wick and Thurso, completing the Highland Railway system to the far north^[2] and causing cessation of Britain's last mail coach.
• 7 August – Church Patronage (Scotland) Act 1874 abolishes patronage in the appointment of ministers to the Church of Scotland.
• Bernera Riot: Islanders of Great Bernera successfully resist Clearances.
• Coulburn Lobnitz & Company establish the shipbuilding business that will become known as Lobnitz in Renfrew.
• Joseph Russell, Anderson Rodger and William Lithgow establish the shipbuilding business that will become Lithgows in Port Glasgow.
• W. B. Thompson establishes the business that will become the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Dundee.
• Broomhall Castle built.
• Association football teams Heart of Midlothian F.C. (in Edinburgh), Greenock Morton F.C. and Hamilton Academical F.C. are founded.

• 20 February – Mary Garden, operatic soprano (died 1967)^[3]
• 23 February – Hugh S. Roberton, choirmaster (died 1952)
• 9 March – John Duncan Fergusson, artist (died 1961)
• 9 June – Launceston Elliot, weightlifter, first British Olympic champion, born in British India (died 1930 in Australia)
• 25 November – Lewis Spence, writer and folklorist (died 1955)

• 24 January – Adam Black, publisher (born 1784)
• 31 July – Cosmo Innes, lawyer and antiquary (born 1798)
• 6 August – Patrick Fairbairn, minister and theologian (born 1805)

• 11 August – Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery opens as The Smith Institute in Stirling under the bequest of painter Thomas Stuart Smith (died 1869).
• Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson, resident in New Town, Edinburgh, writes the tune that becomes the national anthem of Iceland, "Lofsöngur".

• Timeline of Scottish history
• 1874 in Ireland