Events from the year 1849 in Scotland.
Incumbents
Law officers
Lord Advocate – Andrew Rutherfurd
Solicitor General for Scotland – Thomas Maitland
Judiciary
Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Boyle
Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Glencorse
Events
19 February – Theatre Royal disaster: 65 people, almost all under the age of 20, are crushed to death in a panic caused by a small fire in the Theatre Royal, Dunlop Street, Glasgow. 16 July – Portpatrick to Donaghadee packet service withdrawn. 5 October – after three years construction, the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse oil light is first exhibited. 1 November – Buchanan Street railway station opened in Glasgow by the Caledonian Railway. Pollokshields is established as a Glasgow southside suburb by the Stirling-Maxwell family and set out or 'feued' by Edinburgh architect David Rhind. The drapers' store of Arthur & Fraser, predecessor of the House of Fraser, is established in Glasgow by Hugh Fraser and James Arthur.
Births
27 May – Catherine Cranston, tearoom proprietor (died 1934) 24 September – Cathcart William Methven, harbour engineer and painter (died 1925 in South Africa) 23 October – James Reid, physician (died 1923) 29 December – William Cunningham, economist and economic historian (died 1919)
Deaths
5 March – David Scott, historical painter (born 1806) 3 July – Anthony Todd Thomson, physician and pioneer of dermatology (born 1778)