Adam Cairns (1802–1881) was a Scottish Presbyterian minister. In 1837 he became minister of Cupar. At the disruption in 1843 he sided with the Free Church, and was employed in parochial work until 1853, when he accepted a commission from the Colonial Committee of the Free Church to proceed to Melbourne, where he arrived in September of that year. There, amidst the excitement of the gold fever, he laid the foundations of Presbyterianism in Victoria, acting as pastor of the Chalmers Church Congregation till 1865, when, his health failing, he became an emeritus minister, retaining his standing in the Church without pastoral charge. He died on his birthday January 30, 1881.