1966 in Scotland
{{Short description|none}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2015}}
{{Year in Scotland| 1966 }}
Events from the year 1966 in Scotland.
Incumbents
{{further|Politics of Scotland|Order of precedence in Scotland}}
= Law officers =
= Judiciary =
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.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/9/newsid_2730000/2730083.stm|title=New nuclear reactor for Dounreay|access-date=2008-02-03|date=9 February 1966|work=BBC News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216120425/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/9/newsid_2730000/2730083.stm|archive-date=16 February 2008|url-status=live}}
- 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.{{cite book|last=Butt|first=R. V. J.|year=1995|title=The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present|location=Sparkford|publisher=Patrick Stephens Ltd|isbn=1-8526-0508-1}}
- 18 July – Old Man of Hoy first climbed, by Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey.{{cite web|first=Adrian|last=Crofton|publisher=Mountaineering Council of Scotland|title=1966 climb: The Old Man of Hoy|work=A Climb Through History|url=http://www.mountaineering-scotland.org.uk/climbthru/1966hoy.html|access-date=2014-04-09|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090810022955/http://www.mountaineering-scotland.org.uk/climbthru/1966hoy.html|archive-date=10 August 2009}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mYW8LAHLNzoC|title=Unjustifiable Risk? The Story of British Climbing|year=2011|publisher=Cicerone Press|location=Milnthorpe|isbn=9781849653138|last=Thompson|first=Simon|authorlink=Simon_Thompson_(businessman)|page=231|oclc=893659566}}
- 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.