1966 in Scotland

Events from the year 1966 in Scotland.

← 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1966 in Scotland → 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
See also:	List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1966 in: The UK • Wales • Elsewhere Scottish football: 1965–66 • 1966–67 1966 in Scottish television

Incumbents

Further information: Politics of Scotland and Order of precedence in Scotland

• 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.^[1]
• 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.^[2]
• 18 July – Old Man of Hoy first climbed, by Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey.^[3][4]
• 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

1. "New nuclear reactor for Dounreay". BBC News. 9 February 1966. from the original on 16 February 2008. Retrieved 3 February 2008.
2. Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1.
3. Crofton, Adrian. . A Climb Through History. Mountaineering Council of Scotland. Archived from the original on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
4. Thompson, Simon (2011). Unjustifiable Risk? The Story of British Climbing. Milnthorpe: Cicerone Press. p. 231. ISBN 9781849653138. OCLC 893659566.