en 1883 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; 1883 in: The UK • Wales • Elsewhere; Scottish football: 1882–83 • 1883–84

Events from the year 1883 in Scotland.

Incumbents

20 January – Fenian dynamite campaign: In Glasgow, bombs explode at Tradeston Gasworks, Possil Street Bridge and Buchanan Street railway station; about a dozen people are injured.^[1]^[2]
28 April – the first rugby sevens tournament is played at Melrose RFC.^[3]
3 June – Sabbatarian riot at Stromeferry: the local fishing community prevent the loading of fish (caught by east coast fishermen) from Stornoway ships to railway on a Sunday.^[4]
3 July – SS Daphne sinks on launch at Alexander Stephen and Sons' Linthouse shipyard, leaving 124 dead.^[5]
29 August – Dunfermline Carnegie Library, the first Carnegie library in the world, is opened in Andrew Carnegie's hometown, Dunfermline.^[6]
4 October – the Boys' Brigade is founded in Glasgow.^[7]
November–December – the Tay Whale (a humpback) appears in the Firth of Tay; on 31 December it is harpooned but escapes, dying later.
Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank at Dumbarton completed.
Edinburgh Mathematical Society founded.

Curling
- Scotland's first boys' club is established in Wanlockhead.
Rugby union
- Scotland take part in the inaugural Home Nations Championship.
- Scotlands first home international game played at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh.
- First match against Wales, hosted at St. Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea; Scotland win by three goals to one.

17 January – Compton Mackenzie, author and co-founder in 1928 of the Scottish National Party (born in England; died 1972)
27 January – James Lithgow, industrialist (died 1952)
24 March – Dorothy Campbell, golfer (died 1945 in the United States)
12 April – Francis Cadell, Colourist painter (died 1937)
15 May – Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, British Army officer and Unionist politician (killed in action 1915 in France)
5 June – Mary Helen Young, nurse and resistance fighter during World War II (died 1945 in Germany)^[8]
9 July – John Watson, advocate and sheriff, Solicitor General for Scotland 1929–31 (died 1944)
21 August – Victor Fortune, British Army officer (died 1949)
17 October – A. S. Neill, educationalist (died 1973 in England)
17 December – David Powell, stage and silent film actor (died 1925 in the United States)

^ Porter, Bernard (1991). The Origins of the Vigilant State: the London Metropolitan Police Special Branch before the First World War (Repr. ed.). Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 085115283X.
^ Kenna, Shane (2014). War In The Shadows: the Irish-American Fenians who bombed Victorian Britain. Sallins: Merrion. ISBN 9781908928054.
^ "History of Melrose Sevens". Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
^ MacColl, Allan W. (2006). Land, Faith and the Crofting Community: Christianity and Social Community in the Highlands of Scotland, 1843-1893. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-2382-5.
^ "SS Daphne". Clydebuilt Database. Archived from the original on 7 July 2006. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
^ "Dunfermline, Abbot Street, Carnegie Central Library | Canmore". canmore.org.uk. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
^ "History". The Boys' Brigade. Archived from the original on 23 March 2010. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
^ Watson, Fiona R. (2004). "Young, Mary Helen (1883–1945), nurse and resistance worker". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/73212. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 24 August 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)