1981 in Scotland
Appearance
	
	
  | |||||
| Centuries: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decades: | |||||
| See also: | List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1981 in: The UK • England • Wales • Elsewhere Scottish football: 1980–81 • 1981–82 1981 in Scottish television  | ||||
Events from the year 1981 in Scotland.
Incumbents
[edit]Law officers
[edit]Judiciary
[edit]- 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 Elliott
 
Events
[edit]- 1 February – Decriminalisation of homosexual acts between men over 21 years of age through the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980, Section 80, which enters into force on this day.
 - 5 March – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer manufactured by Timex in Dundee, is launched by Sinclair Research, going on to sell over 1.5 million units worldwide.
 - May
- Peugeot closes the Talbot car plant at Linwood, Renfrewshire, which was opened by the Rootes Group eighteen years earlier as Scotland's only car factory.
 - Buchan Oil Field production begins in the North Sea.
 
 - 23 May – Scotland beat England 1-0 at Wembley.
 - 11 December – Closure of Bedlay Colliery, Glenboig.
 - 21 December – George Wood (Aberdeen) Ltd cease trawler operations.
 - Undated
- Last manufacture of coal gas in the UK, at Millport, Isle of Cumbrae.[1]
 - Invergordon aluminium smelter closes.
 - Livingston Skatepark opens, the first in Scotland.[2]
 
 
Births
[edit]- 15 January – Sean Lamont, rugby player
 - 16 February – Alison Rowatt, field hockey midfielder
 - 19 February – Mark Boyle, snooker player
 - 28 February – Mark Brown, footballer
 - 25 March – Emily Smith, folk singer
 - 5 May – Harry Weld-Forester, cricketer
 - 11 June – Alistair McGregor, field hockey goalkeeper
 - 14 June – Alastair Kellock, rugby union player
 - 11 August – Sandi Thom, pop singer-songwriter
 - 28 August – Kezia Dugdale, leader of the Scottish Labour Party
 - 7 September – Natalie McGarry, MP convicted of embezzlement[3]
 - 16 September – David Mitchell, field hockey defender
 - 20 November – Scott Hutchison, indie rock singer-songwriter and visual artist (suicide 2018)
 - 9 December – Gemma Fay, international football goalkeeper
 - Catriona Shearer, television news presenter
 
Deaths
[edit]- 6 January – A. J. Cronin, novelist (born 1896)
 - 23 February – Nan Shepherd, novelist and poet (born 1893)
 - June – Wendy Wood, nationalist campaigner (born 1892 in England)
 - 22 August – Mairi Chisholm, nurse and ambulance driver in World War I, one of "The Madonnas of Pervyse" (born 1896)
 - 8 September – Bill Shankly, football manager (born 1913)
 - 19 October – Johnny Doyle, footballer (born 1951)
 - 1 December – James Monteith Grant, herald and Lord Lyon King of Arms (born 1903)
 
The arts
[edit]- 30 March – release of historical drama film Chariots of Fire that tells the story of devout Christian Eric Liddell competing in the 1924 Olympics.
 - 23 April – release of romantic comedy film Gregory's Girl.
 - Alasdair Gray's first novel Lanark: A Life in Four Books is published in Edinburgh.
 - Perrier Comedy Awards first presented to the best shows on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
 - The Bluebells formed.
 - First Fèis Bharraigh.
 
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Great Cumbrae". Secret Scotland. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
 - ^ Scott, Katy (29 February 2024). "Livingston skatepark is first to be listed in Scotland". BBC News. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
 - ^ Publishing, Bloomsbury (19 November 2015). Whitaker's Shorts 2016: Governance. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472921987 – via Google Books.
 
