1889 in Scotland

Centuries:	17th; 18th; 19th; 20th; 21st;
Decades:	1860s; 1870s; 1880s; 1890s; 1900s;
See also:	List of years in Scotland; Timeline of Scottish history; 1889 in: The UK • Wales • Elsewhere; Scottish football: 1888–89 • 1889–90

Events from the year 1889 in Scotland.

Incumbents

26 January – Dundee is granted city status in the United Kingdom by letters patent.^[1]^[2]^[3]
5 February – the first issue of Glasgow University Magazine is published.
11 March – baby farmer Jessie King is the last woman to be hanged in Edinburgh, for infanticide.
24 April – William Henry Bury is hanged in Dundee for uxoricide.
15 July – the Scottish National Portrait Gallery opens in Edinburgh in premises designed by Rowand Anderson, the first in the world to be purpose-built as a portrait gallery.^[4]
26 August – the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, receives royal assent. School fees abolished for compulsory education.
5 September – Mauricewood Colliery disaster: a fire at the pit near Penicuik kills 63 of the 70 men and boys working underground.^[5]
1 November – new building under construction at Templeton's Carpet Factory on Glasgow Green collapses killing 29 women in adjacent weaving sheds.
November - King's Cross Hospital opens in Dundee.^[6]

7 January – George Samson, sailor, recipient of the Victoria Cross (died at sea 1923)
30 May – Isobel Wylie Hutchison, explorer (died 1982)
20 July – John Reith, broadcasting executive (died 1971)
11 August – Ronald Fairbairn, psychoanalyst (died 1964)
25 September – Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff, writer (died 1930)
1 December – Alexander Keiller, marmalade manufacturer and archaeologist (died 1955)
John Munro (Iain Rothach), Gaelic poet (killed in action 1918)

31 May – Horatius Bonar, churchman, writer and hymnodist (born 1808)
24 December – Charles Mackay, poet, journalist, author, anthologist, novelist and songwriter (born 1812)

Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Mystery of Cloomber is published.
Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Master of Ballantrae is published.
The Great Scottish National Panorama (Battle of Bannockburn) is opened in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.

^ "Dundee – Scotland's First City?". The Dundee City Archives Blog. 24 January 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
^ "Calling all history buffs: Dundee is actually the oldest city in Scotland - here's why". SeeDundee. 28 January 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
^ Milne, Scott. "Dundee is Scotland's oldest city — and here's why". The Courier. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
^ "The Scottish National Portrait Gallery". The Times. No. 32752. London. 16 July 1889. p. 5.
^ "Mauricewood 1889". Scottish Mining Website. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
^ "Collection THB 22 - King's Cross Hospital". Archive Services Catalogue. University of Dundee. Retrieved 13 December 2023.