1888 in Scotland

• Secretary for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – The Marquess of Lothian

• 9 January – Crofters War: Aignish riot – Dispossessed crofters on Lewis face armed troops.^[1]
• 15 March – transatlantic liner SS City of New York is launched at John Brown & Company's shipyard at Clydebank.
• 8 May–November – International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry at Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow.^[2]
• July–August – first "Race to the North": Operators of the West and East Coast Main Line railways accelerate their services between London and Edinburgh.
• 28 May – Celtic Football Club play their first official match, beating Rangers 5–2 in Glasgow.
• 25 August – first Scottish Labour Party founded.^[3]
• 24 September – Stock exchange opened at Greenock.^[4]
• 15 October – Dundee Institute of Technology, predecessor of Abertay University, opens.
• c. December – completion of first stage of Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art.
• Lancashire textile machinery manufacturer John Bullough purchases the isle of Rùm.
• Opening of Carstairs House Tramway, a private railway powered by hydroelectricity and the first permanent electric railway in Scotland.

• 3 January – James Bridie (O. H. Mavor), playwright (died 1951)
• 13 February – Andrew Dewar Gibb, lawyer and Scottish National Party politician (died 1974)
• 8 March – John Nicholson, footballer (died 1970 in England)
• 19 April – Walter Elliot, Unionist politician (died 1958)
• 6 June – Scottie Wilson, né Louis Freeman, artist (died 1972 in England)
• 7 June – Hilda Matheson, pioneering radio talks producer, born in London (died 1940 in England)
• 7 July – Edith Hughes, née Burnet, architect (died 1971)
• 14 August – John Logie Baird, engineer and inventor (died 1946)^[5]
• 5 September – Jack Miles, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Australia (died 1969 in Australia)
• 7 October – Cecil Coles, composer (killed in action 1918)
• Approximate date – Alexander MacRae, clothing manufacturer (died 1938 in Australia)

• 10 January – James Campbell Walker, Scottish architect (born 1821)
• May – James Salmon, architect (born 1805)
• 30 May – William Hay, architect (born 1818)
• 4 August – Lord Douglas Gordon, Liberal MP (born 1851)

J. M. Barrie's Auld Licht Idylls is published.

• Timeline of Scottish history
• 1888 in Ireland