1951 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George VI
• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Hector McNeil until 26 October; then James Stuart

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – John Thomas Wheatley until November; then James Latham Clyde
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Douglas Johnston until November; then William Rankine Milligan

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Cooper
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Thomson
• Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Gibson

  Events

• 11 April – The Stone of Scone is located in Forfar, having been stolen by Scottish nationalists.
• 12 May – Remains of Gunnister Man found in a peat bog in Shetland.
• 18-26 May – Festival of Britain: Festival Ship Campania on view in Dundee.
• 25 May-8 September – Festival of Britain: Living Traditions exhibition presented at the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, by the Council of Industrial Design.
• 28 May-18 August – Festival of Britain: Exhibition of Industrial Power in Glasgow.
• 18 September-6 October – Festival of Britain: Festival Ship Campania on view in Glasgow.
• 30 October – James Stuart is appointed Secretary of State for Scotland; he will hold office until January 1957.
• November – Ecurie Ecosse motor racing team founded by Edinburgh businessman and racing driver David Murray and mechanic Wilkie Wilkinson.
• 7 November – first floodlit Association football match in Scotland, a Stenhousemuir v. Hibernian F.C. friendly at the former's Ochilview Park.
• 24 November – Beinn Eighe becomes Britain's first national nature reserve.
• Publication of The Third Statistical Account of Scotland commences with the volume for Ayrshire.

  Births

• 2 February – Ken Bruce, radio broadcaster
• 7 February – Eddie Kelly, footballer
• 20 February – Gordon Brown, Labour politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 2007–10
• 4 March – Kenny Dalglish, international footballer and manager
• 25 April – Ian McCartney, Labour politician
• 9 August – James Naughtie, print and radio journalist
• 22 August – Alex Neil, Scottish National Party MSP and government minister
• 23 September – Andrew Greig, author
• 26 September – Stuart Tosh, born Stuart MacIntosh, rock musician
• 28 September – Jim Diamond, singer-songwriter
• 17 November – Jack Vettriano, born Jack Hoggan, painter
• 19 November – Charles Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, Labour politician and Lord Chancellor
• 15 December – Joe Jordan, international footballer and manager
• 20 December – Peter May, fiction writer
• 22 December – Jim McColl, entrepreneur
• Michael Scott Rohan, fantasy writer

  Deaths

• 3 January – Peter McBride, footballer
• 29 January – James Bridie, playwright
• 3 May – Sir Thomas Henderson, Liberal politician
• 16 May – James Greenlees, rugby union footballer, educationalist and soldier
• 9 September – Andrew Blain Baird, engineer and aviation pioneer
• 1 October – Peter McWilliam, international footballer and manager
• 11 October – Donald Cameron, 25th Lochiel, chief of Clan Cameron

  The arts

• 19 May – Pitlochry Festival Theatre opens in a tent with the British première of Maxwell Anderson’s Mary of Scotland.
• School of Scottish Studies founded.