1965 in Scotland

Events from the year 1965 in Scotland.

Incumbents

 * Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Willie Ross

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Gordon Stott
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – Henry Wilson

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Clyde
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Grant
 * Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Gibson until 12 April; then Lord Birsay

Events

 * March – Cables Wynd House ("Banana Flats") completed in Leith.
 * 24 March – Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles by-election: David Steel (Liberal) gains the seat from the Conservatives.
 * 12 April – Harald Leslie becomes Chairman of the Scottish Land Court, with the judicial title Lord Birsay. He replaces Lord Gibson.
 * 15 June – Law Commissions Act 1965, establishing the Scottish Law Commission, receives the Royal assent.
 * August – Union Canal officially closed to navigation.
 * 5 August – the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965 receives royal assent.
 * 11 August – first edition of The Celtic View, the official weekly magazine of Celtic F.C. in Glasgow, is published.
 * 20 August – Cassius Clay fights an exhibition bout at the Ice Rink, Paisley.
 * 6 September – Edinburgh Princes Street railway station is officially closed.
 * 15 October – the Cruachan Dam pumped-storage hydroelectricity scheme at Ben Cruachan near Oban opens.
 * 8 November – the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act suspends capital punishment for murder in England, Scotland and Wales, for five years in the first instance, replacing it with a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
 * November – Harthill Bypass opened, first section of the M8 motorway and the first substantive section of motorway in Scotland.
 * The Unionist Party in Scotland is renamed the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and constitutionally comes under the control of the London-based Conservative Party.
 * Construction of the town of Dalgety Bay begins.
 * Highlands and Islands Development Board formed.
 * Corpach pulp and paper mills open.

Births

 * 18 January – Paul Flexney, footballer
 * 20 January – Colin Calderwood, international footballer and coach
 * 22 January – Brian McCardie, actor
 * 27 January – Alan Cumming, actor
 * 6 February – Simone Lahbib, actress
 * 11 February – Keith Cochrane, businessman
 * 14 February – Ian Spittal, footballer
 * 16 February – Ally Maxwell, footballer and coach
 * 22 February – John Leslie (born John Leslie Stott), television presenter
 * 5 March – Carolyn Leckie, Scottish Socialist Party MSP (2003–2007)
 * 8 March – Paul Martin, footballer and manager
 * 20 March – William Dalrymple, historian
 * 22 March – Rob Wainwright, international rugby union footballer
 * 23 March – Marti Pellow (born Mark McLachlan), singer
 * 26 March – Pat McFadden, Labour MP (Wolverhampton 2005– )
 * 6 April – Andy Walker, footballer and TV pundit
 * 11 April – Lynn Ferguson, writer, actress, comedian and presenter
 * 25 April – Ally Dick, footballer
 * 16 May – Stuart Millar, football player and manager
 * 17 May – Keith Wright, international footballer
 * 24 May – Brian Irvine, international footballer
 * 28 May – Vic Kasule, footballer
 * 5 June – Allan Guthrie, literary agent, author and editor of crime fiction
 * 19 June – A. B. Jackson, poet
 * 22 June – Jimmy Sandison, footballer
 * 3 July – Tommy Flanagan, actor
 * 9 July – David O'Hara, actor
 * 12 July – Eric Cullen, actor (died 1996)
 * 15 July – Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat politician and Secretary of State for Scotland
 * 19 July – Evelyn Glennie, virtuosa percussionist
 * 24 July – Julie Graham, actress
 * 26 July – Hamish Clark, actor
 * 11 August – Robert Fleck, international footballer and manager
 * 30 August – Peter Grant, international footballer and manager
 * 5 September – Murdo Fraser, Conservative MSP (2001– )
 * 11 September:
 * Robert Docherty, footballer
 * Graeme Obree, racing cyclist
 * 14 September – Paul McFadden, footballer
 * 27 September – Rhona Cameron, comedian
 * 14 October – Sandy Stewart, footballer and manager
 * 20 October – Norman Blake, singer, instrumentalist and songwriter
 * 22 October – A. L. Kennedy, fiction writer
 * 29 October – Paul Stewart, racing driver
 * 12 November – Eddie Mair, radio and television presenter
 * 19 November – Douglas Henshall, actor
 * 24 November – Shirley Henderson, actress
 * 25 November – Dougray Scott, actor
 * 28 November – Caroline Paterson, actress
 * 11 December – Alison Watt, painter
 * 13 December – Hugh Burns, footballer
 * 20 December – Robert Cavanah, actor, writer, director and producer
 * 21 December – Stuart Mitchell, pianist and composer
 * 31 December – Mike Conroy, footballer
 * Unknown
 * Anne Bevan, visual artist, sculptor and lecturer
 * Christine Borland, sculptor
 * Patricia Littlechild, sport shooter and neurosurgeon
 * Susan Philipsz, sound artist

Deaths

 * 7 January – Anne Redpath, domestic painter (born 1895)
 * 1 February – Robert Spence, Labour MP
 * 14 February – David Ferguson Hunter, recipient of the Victoria Cross (born 1891)
 * 30 April – James William Slessor Marr, marine biologist and polar explorer (born 1902)
 * 17 March – Walter Potter Ritchie, recipient of the Victoria Cross (born 1892)
 * 31 March – Gerard Crole, international rugby union and cricket player (born 1894)
 * 9 April – Robert Gibson, Lord Gibson, lawyer and Labour MP
 * 9 May – Hugh O'Donnell, footballer (born 1913)
 * 16 July – William Reid, Scottish Labour Party Member of Parliament from 1950 to 1964 (born 1889)
 * 2 August – John Carmont, High Court Judge (born 1890)
 * 12 August – Willie Gallacher, trade unionist, activist and communist MP (born 1881)
 * 5 September – Tom Johnston, Labour MP, government minister and chairman of North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (born 1881)
 * 8 October – James Nelson, international footballer (born 1901)
 * 20 October – William Thomas Shaw, Unionist Party MP (born 1879)

The arts

 * George Mackay Brown's poetry The Year of the Whale is published.
 * The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts opens the Kelly Gallery.
 * 31 December – "Pirate" radio station Radio Scotland begins broadcasting from LV Comet anchored outside U.K. territorial waters off Dunbar.