1966 in Scotland

Events from the year 1966 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 Birsay

Events

 * 1 February – Heriot-Watt College in Edinburgh is designated Heriot-Watt University.
 * 9 February – construction of a prototype fast breeder nuclear reactor at Dounreay on the north coast of Scotland is announced.
 * 28 March – Ballachulish branch railway officially closed; Connel Bridge becomes a road-only crossing.
 * 11 April (Easter Monday) – Scottish clearing banks observe today as a bank holiday for the first time, aligning them with those in England.
 * May
 * Pioneering west coast roll-on/roll-off ferry Isle of Gigha enters service.
 * Royal Commission on Local Government in Scotland (chaired by Lord Wheatley) appointed.
 * 27 June
 * Glasgow Airport officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
 * Glasgow St Enoch railway station officially closed.
 * 18 July – Old Man of Hoy first climbed, by Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey.
 * 18 August – the Tay Road Bridge opens linking Dundee with Fife.
 * 29 August – Scottish clearing banks observe this last Monday in August (rather than the first) as a bank holiday for the first time.
 * 28 October – first Red Road Flats in Glasgow officially opened.
 * 9 November – Irvine is designated as a New Town.
 * 11 November – MV Isle of Gigha capsizes on a Gigha–Port Ellen crossing.
 * Scottish Grand National first run at Ayr Racecourse.

Births

 * March – Jamie Oag, entrepreneur
 * 18 March – Joanna Cherry, Scottish National Party politician and lawyer
 * 28 May – Roddy Lumsden, poet (died 2020)
 * 7 August – David Cairns, Scottish Labour politician, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland and MP for Inverclyde (died 2011)
 * 20 September – Douglas Gordon, visual artist
 * 12 October – Rhona Martin, curler
 * 26 October – Steve Valentine, actor
 * 8 November – Gordon Ramsay, celebrity chef
 * 23 November – Kevin Gallacher, international footballer
 * Laura Hird, fiction writer

Deaths

 * 1 January – Alexander Carrick, sculptor (born 1882)
 * 7 January – Allan Chapman, lawyer and politician (born 1897)
 * 16 July – Agnes Dollan, suffragette, political activist and leader of the Glasgow Rent Strikes (born 1887)
 * 6 November – Hugh Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of Allander, retailer (born 1903)
 * 24 December – Sir Donald MacGillivray, last colonial governor of Malaya (born 1906)

The arts

 * 7 January – school-based television drama series This Man Craig is first screened by BBC Scotland with John Cairney in the title rôle.
 * The Bay City Rollers and The Incredible String Band form in Edinburgh.