1971 in Scotland
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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2015}}
{{Year in Scotland| 1971 }}
Events from the year 1971 in Scotland.
Incumbents
{{further|Politics of Scotland|Order of precedence in Scotland}}
= Law officers =
= Judiciary =
Events
- 2 January – 1971 Ibrox disaster: a stairway crush at the Rangers vs. Celtic football match at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow kills 66 and leaves many more injured.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/2/newsid_2478000/2478305.stm|title=1971: Sixty-six die in Scottish football disaster|work=BBC News|access-date=2008-02-02|date=2 January 1971|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307113132/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/2/newsid_2478000/2478305.stm|archive-date=7 March 2008|url-status=live}}
- 10 March – 1971 Scottish soldiers' killings: three young off-duty Royal Highland Fusiliers are lured from a bar in Belfast and shot by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
- 23 May – "The Unknown Bairn": The drowned body of a young boy is found washed up onshore at Tayport; he is never identified.{{cite news|title=Tayport remembers 'The Unknown Bairn' 40 years after his body was found on beach|url=http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/tayport-remembers-the-unknown-bairn-40-years-after-his-body-was-found-on-beach-1.43690|work=The Courier|location=Dundee|date=2011-05-23|access-date=2015-08-24}}
- 25 May – production begins at the Invergordon aluminium works.
- 15 June – Upper Clyde Shipbuilders enters liquidation.{{cite news|work=The Times|location=London|date=16 June 1971|page=18|issue=58200|title=Provisional liquidator is appointed for Upper Clyde Shipbuilders}}
- 2 July
- Royal Scots Dragoon Guards formed as the senior Scottish regiment of the British Army at Holyrood, Edinburgh, by amalgamation of the Royal Scots Greys and 3rd Carabiniers.
- Erskine Bridge opened over the River Clyde.
- 30 July – Upper Clyde Shipbuilders workers begin to take control of the shipyards in a work-in under the leadership of Jimmy Reid.{{cite news|work=The Times|location=London|date=31 July 1971|page=1|issue=58238|title=Workers seize control of shipyard on the Clyde|first=Ian|last=Murray}}
- c. August – Kyle of Tongue Bridge and causeway opened, replacing a ferry.
- 16 September – Stirling and Falkirk by-election: Labour retains the seat but the Scottish National Party takes second place with a surge of 20% in their support.
- 21 October – Clarkston explosion: a gas explosion in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire kills at least twenty people.
- 22 November – Cairngorm Plateau disaster: Five children and one adult on an expedition die of exposure in the Highlands.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2549000/2549021.stm|title=1971: Six dead in Scottish mountain tragedy|work=BBC News|access-date=2008-02-02|date=22 November 1971|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307113139/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2549000/2549021.stm|archive-date=7 March 2008|url-status=live}}
- 2 December – last resident families leave the island of Scarp.{{cite web|title=The Lost Islands|url=http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/techservices/bridgescausewaysferries/lost.asp|location=Stornoway|publisher=Comhairle nan Eilean Siar|date=2013-08-29|access-date=2014-05-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227133644/http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/techservices/bridgescausewaysferries/lost.asp|archive-date=27 February 2014|url-status=dead}}
- Expansion of Erskine as a planned community begins.
- Spey Bridge at Aviemore opened.
- Tom Farmer opens the first Kwik Fit car servicing centre, in Edinburgh.
Births
- 21 January – Alan McManus, snooker player
- 23 March
- Kate Dickie, actress
- Gail Porter, television presenter and model
- 27 March – David Coulthard, racing driver
- 31 March – Ewan McGregor, actor
- 1 April – Karen Dunbar, comedian
- 5 April – Charles Cumming, espionage novelist
- 18 April – David Tennant, actor
- 31 July – Craig MacLean, track cyclist
- 19 August – Paul McGrillen, footballer (suicide 2009)
- 30 August – Julian Smith, Conservative politician
- 6 October – Brian Conaghan, young adult fiction writer
- 7 October – Aasmah Mir, journalist and presenter
- 8 October – Michelle Mone, entrepreneur
- 13 November – Alberto Costa, Conservative politician
Deaths
- 16 June – John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, broadcasting executive (born 1889)
- 25 June – John Boyd Orr, physician and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (born 1880)
- 28 August – Edith Hughes, architect (born 1888)
- 12 December
- Torrance Gillick, Rangers F.C. winger (born 1915)
- Alan Morton, Rangers outside left (born 1893)
- 22 December – D. Alan Stevenson, lighthouse engineer and philatelist (born 1891)
The arts
- 26 March – BBC Scotland television begins a serialisation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song, starring Vivien Heilbron.
- 18 November – Stewart Conn's play The Burning, concerning King James VI of Scotland, premieres.
- Douglas Hurd and Andrew Osmond's political thriller Scotch on the Rocks, concerning a terrorist group fighting for Scottish independence in the near future, is published by Collins.
- English composer Peter Maxwell Davies settles in Orkney, initially on Hoy.