1973 in Scotland

Events from the year 1973 in Scotland.

Incumbents

 * Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Gordon Campbell

Law officers

 * Lord Advocate – Norman Wylie
 * Solicitor General for Scotland – William Stewart

Judiciary

 * Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Emslie
 * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Wheatley
 * Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Birsay

Events

 * 1 January – most of the west coast shipping services of David MacBrayne are merged with those of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company as Caledonian MacBrayne.
 * 1 March – Dundee East by-election: Labour retains the seat by only 1,141 votes in the face of a strong SNP challenge.
 * May – The Co-operative Group: The Scottish Co-operative (Wholesale) Society Ltd merges into the UK-wide Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd following serious financial mismanagement of the SCWS Bank.
 * 17 July – Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire, is formally designated as a New Town but never developed.
 * 25 October – Local Government (Scotland) Act initiates a major reorganisation of local government in Scotland with effect from May 1975).
 * 26 October – firefighters in Glasgow stage a one-day strike following a pay dispute. Troops are drafted in to run the fire stations.
 * 31 October – the Kilbrandon Report is published and recommends the establishment of a directly elected Scottish Assembly.
 * 8 November – Glasgow Govan by-election results in Margo MacDonald of the Scottish National Party (SNP) gaining the seat from Labour on a 26.7% swing. In a second Scottish by election that day, the Conservatives retain Edinburgh North.
 * 14 December – third (replacement) Bonar Bridge opened.
 * 21 December – armed robbery of British Rail Engineering Limited in Glasgow, in which James Kennedy, a security guard, is killed, earning a posthumous George Cross for his gallantry.
 * 31 December – Radio Clyde begins broadcasting, from Clydebank.
 * The Church of Scotland introduces the Church Hymnary, third edition, an entirely new compilation.

Births

 * 20 January – Stephen Crabb, Welsh Conservative politician
 * 18 March – Patrick Harvie, Green politician
 * 10 May – Dario Franchitti, racing driver
 * 14 May – Fraser Nelson, political journalist
 * 26 May – Julie Wilson Nimmo, actress
 * 15 September – Alyn Smith, SNP MEP, MP
 * 24 September – Gillian Lindsay, rower
 * 5 October – Kay Moran, lawn bowler
 * 13 October – Peter Dumbreck, racing driver
 * Iain Finlay Macleod, playwright and novelist

Deaths

 * 15 January – Neil M. Gunn, novelist, critic and dramatist (born 1891)
 * 22 February – F. Marian McNeill, folklorist (born 1885)
 * 23 September – A. S. Neill, progressive educator and author (born 1883)
 * 8 October – John Rankin, Labour politician (born 1890)
 * 5 December – Robert Watson-Watt, pioneer of radar (born 1892)
 * 21 December – James Kennedy, security guard murdered in raid (born 1930)
 * 30 December
 * D. E. Stevenson (Dorothy Peploe), romantic novelist (born 1892)
 * Vagaland (Thomas Alexander Robertson), Shetland dialect poet (born 1909)
 * Sir William Gillies, painter (born 1898)

The arts

 * 31 March – John McGrath's play The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil is premiered by 7:84 in Aberdeen.
 * 11 May–8 June – The political thriller Scotch on the Rocks, concerning a terrorist group fighting for Scottish independence in the near future, is broadcast by BBC Scotland.
 * Canongate Books is established as a publisher in Edinburgh.
 * George Mackay Brown's novel Magnus is published.
 * Celtic rock group Runrig formed on Skye.