1973 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Gordon Campbell

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Norman Wylie
• Solicitor General for Scotland – William Stewart

  Judiciary

• 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 Birsay

  Events

• 1 January – most of the west coast shipping services of David MacBrayne are merged with those of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company as Caledonian MacBrayne.
• 1 March – Dundee East by-election: Labour retains the seat by only 1,141 votes in the face of a strong SNP challenge.
• May – The Co-operative Group: The Scottish Co-operative Society Ltd merges into the UK-wide Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd following serious financial mismanagement of the SCWS Bank.
• 17 July – Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire, is formally designated as a New Town but never developed.
• 25 October – Local Government.
• 26 October – firefighters in Glasgow stage a one-day strike following a pay dispute. Troops are drafted in to run the fire stations.
• 31 October – the Kilbrandon Report is published and recommends the establishment of a directly elected Scottish Assembly.
• 8 November – Glasgow Govan by-election results in Margo MacDonald of the Scottish National Party gaining the seat from Labour on a 26.7% swing. In a second Scottish by election that day, the Conservatives retain Edinburgh North.
• 14 December – third Bonar Bridge opened.
• 21 December – armed robbery of British Rail Engineering Limited in Glasgow, in which James Kennedy, a security guard, is killed, earning a posthumous George Cross for his gallantry.
• 31 December – Radio Clyde begins broadcasting, from Clydebank.
• The Church of Scotland introduces the Church Hymnary, third edition, an entirely new compilation.

  Births

• 20 January – Stephen Crabb, Welsh Conservative politician
• 18 March – Patrick Harvie, Green politician
• 10 May – Dario Franchitti, racing driver
• 14 May – Fraser Nelson, political journalist
• 26 May – Julie Wilson Nimmo, actress
• 15 September – Alyn Smith, SNP MEP, MP
• 24 September – Gillian Lindsay, rower
• Iain Finlay Macleod, playwright and novelist

  Deaths

• 15 January – Neil M. Gunn, novelist, critic and dramatist
• 22 February – F. Marian McNeill, folklorist
• 23 September – A. S. Neill, progressive educator and author
• 8 October – John Rankin, Labour politician
• 5 December – Robert Watson-Watt, pioneer of radar
• 21 December – James Kennedy, security guard murdered in raid
• 30 December
• * D. E. Stevenson, romantic novelist
• * Vagaland, Shetland dialect poet
• Sir William Gillies, painter

  The arts

• 31 March – John McGrath's play The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil is premiered by in Aberdeen.
• 11 May–8 June – The political thriller Scotch on the Rocks, concerning a terrorist group fighting for Scottish independence in the near future, is broadcast by BBC Scotland.
• Canongate Books is established as a publisher in Edinburgh.
• George Mackay Brown's novel Magnus is published.
• Celtic rock group Runrig formed on Skye.