Dovecotland, Perthshire, Scotland.
Scotland received the rudiments of his education at the village school, later at the Kinnoul Street Academy and the Perth Academy. He then proceeded to St. Andrews for a session. After a year at home, he resumed his studies at Edinburgh, where he continued until ready for license. On account of delicate health, he did not for a year thereafter begin the work of a probationer, but spent the interval as resident tutor in Roxburghshire in the family of G. Dalrymple, brother of the Earl of Stair. Scotland was called to Keith and Aberdeen, but instead chose the United Presbyterian Church in Errol, Carse of Gowrie, where he was ordained January 1871, as colleague and successor to John Lamb.
In September 1879, Scotland was inducted as the first minister of the recently-formed charge at Newport-on-Tay. He had frequent overtures from city churches, which he consistently declined.