2002 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• First Minister and Keeper of the Great Seal – Jack McConnell
• Secretary of State for Scotland – Helen Liddell

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Lord Boyd of Duncansby
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Elish Angiolini
• Advocate General for Scotland – Lynda Clark

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Cullen of Whitekirk
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Gill
• Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord McGhie

  Events

• February – 2002 Winter Olympics: the gold medal in women's curling is won by an all-Scottish team representing Great Britain in Salt Lake City skipped by Rhona Martin.
• 14 March – Stirling is granted city status in the United Kingdom by the Queen to mark her Golden Jubilee.
• 10 February – the preschool television series Balamory made by BBC Scotland is first broadcast, nationally.
• 14 March – appeal of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi against a conviction for murder in connection with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie is rejected and the Scottish Court in the Netherlands is decommissioned.
• 19 March – a lesbian couple are granted parental rights over their children by an Edinburgh court.
• 29 March – coal mining in Scotland, which has a history stretching back more than 800 years, comes to an end with the closure of Longannet coal mine in Fife after its owners go into liquidation following flooding, putting more than 500 people out of work.
• 1 May – Airdrieonians, of the Scottish Football League Division One, go into liquidation with debts of £3million.
• May – the Scottish Parliament meets during this month in the University of Aberdeen.
• 24 May – Falkirk Wheel boat lift opens in Scotland, also marking reopening of the Union Canal for leisure traffic.
• 28 May – the Freedom of Information Act 2002 receives royal assent.
• 9 July – Clydebank F.C. of the Scottish Football League Second Division become defunct after a takeover by the owners of the new Airdrie United club, who take their place in the Scottish league.
• 24 July – Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park created, Scotland's first national park.
• 30 July – 2002 Glasgow floods result from heavy rain overnight.
• 1 August – the Protection of Wild Mammals Act 2002, that bans traditional fox hunting and hare coursing, comes into effect.
• Millennium Bridge, Glasgow, opens to pedestrians.

  Deaths

• 8 March – Hamish Henderson, folk song collector
• 30 March – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother dies aged 101 at Royal Lodge, Windsor.
• 27 May – Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson, historian and palaeographer
• 5 July – Jannette Anderson, academic
• 19 September – Rosalind Mitchison, historian
• October – William Dysart, actor
• 9 November – Neil MacCallum, political activist and poet
• 10 December – Ian MacNaughton, Scottish actor, director, and producer

  The arts

• The office of Edinburgh Makar is instituted, with poet Stewart Conn as first incumbent.
• The indie rock band Franz Ferdinand is formed in Glasgow.
• David Greig's play Outlying Islands is premiered at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
• Peter Maxwell Davies composes his Piano Trio: A Voyage to Fair Isle.