2006 in Scotland

Events from the year 2006 in Scotland.

Incumbents

First Minister and Keeper of the Great Seal – Jack McConnell
Secretary of State for Scotland – Alistair Darling until 5 May; then Douglas Alexander

Law officers

Lord Advocate – Lord Boyd of Duncansby; then Elish Angiolini
Solicitor General for Scotland – Elish Angiolini; then John Beckett
Advocate General for Scotland – Lynda Clark; then Lord Davidson of Glen Clova

Judiciary

Events

January

1 January – Transport Scotland begins operations as an agency of the Scottish Executive.
7 January – Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats resigns after revelations that he has a drinking problem.

February

9 February – Dunfermline and West Fife by-election: Willie Rennie of the Liberal Democrats is the winner.

March

2 March
* Sir Menzies Campbell is elected leader of the Liberal Democrats following an election caused by the resignation of Charles Kennedy.
* Four people are injured in an explosion in a GlaxoSmithKline factory in Irvine, North Ayrshire.
15–26 March – Scotland at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
26 March – Scottish public smoking ban comes into effect under the conditions of the Smoking, Health and Social Care Act 2005, banning people from smoking indoors in public places like restaurants, pubs and cafes; the first region of the UK to prohibit smoking inside public buildings.
28 March – Royal Regiment of Scotland created; King's Own Scottish Borderers and The Royal Scots disbanded.

April

27 April – Moray by-election: Richard Lochhead holds the seat in the Scottish Parliament for the Scottish National Party.

May

30 May – Scottish TV and Grampian TV both relaunched under the new name of STV.

July

4 July – Sheridan v News Group Newspapers Ltd: Scottish Socialist Party MSP Tommy Sheridan begins an action for defamation against the News of the World at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Sheridan's case is upheld but he is later prosecuted for perjury.

August

21 August – the first modern solely Gaelic-medium school to offer secondary education, Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu, is opened at Woodside in Glasgow.
Scotland's first offshore wind turbine is installed in the Beatrice Wind Farm, 24 km offshore in the Moray Firth.
The Scottish crossbill is finally confirmed as a unique species.

September

3 September – establishment of Solidarity – Scotland's Socialist Movement, a breakaway from the Scottish Socialist Party.
18 September – the Clyde Arc, a pedestrian/cycle bridge over the River Clyde at Finnieston, is officially opened.

October

5 October – Rt. Hon. Elish Angiolini, QC, appointed as Lord Advocate. She is the first woman, first procurator fiscal, and the first solicitor to be appointed to the post.
11–13 October – multi-party political talks on Northern Ireland are held in St Andrews, resulting in the St Andrews Agreement.

November

8 November – three men of Pakistani origin sentenced to life imprisonment for the racist murder of Kriss Donald in Glasgow.
25–26 November – Aberdeen Cup tennis tournament.
30 November – residents of Benbecula take control of a large part of the island in a community buy-out.

Undated

A fossil pterosaur found on the Isle of Skye is revealed in 2024 to be a species new to paleontology.

Deaths

5 January – Rachel Squire, [Scottish Scottish Labour Party|Labour Party|Labour] MP
31 January – Moira Shearer, ballet dancer and actress
9 February – Ena Lamont Stewart, playwright
10 February – John Prentice, football player and manager
28 February – Hugh McCartney, Labour MP
3 March – Ivor Cutler, poet, songwriter and humourist
12 March – Jimmy Johnstone, footballer; member of the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame
21 March – Margaret Ewing, Scottish National Party MSP and former MP
27 March – Ian Hamilton Finlay, writer, artist and gardener
9 April – Robin Orr, composer
13 April – Muriel Spark, novelist
15 April – Calum Kennedy, singer
8 May – Iain Macmillan, photographer and author
17 May – Eric Forth, Conservative MP
6 July – Tom Weir, climber, author and broadcaster
30 August – Hector Monro, Baron Monro of Langholm, Conservative and Unionist MP
15 September – Douglas Henderson, Scottish National Party MP
3 October – Lucilla Andrews, romantic novelist

Arts

February – National Theatre of Scotland established as a peripatetic company.
1 August – Gregory Burke's play Black Watch is first performed, by the National Theatre of Scotland at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe'.
Hamish MacDonald self-publishes The Willies and Idea in Stone.
James Robertson publishes The Testament of Gideon Mack.