1981 in Scotland

Centuries:	18th; 19th; 20th; 21st; ;
Decades:	1960s; 1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s;
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

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]

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
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)
Catriona Shearer, television news presenter

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)

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.

^ "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.