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.

See also

• 1966 in Northern Ireland

References