Events from the year 1965 in Scotland.

• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Willie Ross

• March – Cables Wynd House ("Banana Flats") completed in Leith.^[2]
• 24 March – Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles by-election: David Steel (Liberal) gains the seat from the Conservatives.
• 12 April – Harald Leslie becomes Chairman of the Scottish Land Court, with the judicial title Lord Birsay. He replaces Lord Gibson.^[1]
• 15 June – Law Commissions Act 1965, establishing the Scottish Law Commission, receives the Royal assent.
• August – Union Canal officially closed to navigation.^[3]
• 5 August – the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965 receives royal assent.
• 11 August – first edition of The Celtic View, the official weekly magazine of Celtic F.C. in Glasgow, is published.
• 20 August – Cassius Clay fights an exhibition bout at the Ice Rink, Paisley.^[4]
• 6 September – Edinburgh Princes Street railway station is officially closed.^[5]
• 15 October – the Cruachan Dam pumped-storage hydroelectricity scheme at Ben Cruachan near Oban opens.
• 8 November – the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act suspends capital punishment for murder in England, Scotland and Wales, for five years in the first instance, replacing it with a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
• November – Harthill Bypass opened, first section of the M8 motorway and the first substantive section of motorway in Scotland.
• The Unionist Party in Scotland is renamed the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and constitutionally comes under the control of the London-based Conservative Party.
• Construction of the town of Dalgety Bay begins.
• Highlands and Islands Development Board formed.
• Corpach pulp and paper mills open.^[6]

• 18 January – Paul Flexney, footballer
• 20 January – Colin Calderwood, international footballer and coach
• 22 January – Brian McCardie, actor
• 27 January – Alan Cumming, actor
• 6 February – Simone Lahbib, actress
• 11 February – Keith Cochrane, businessman
• 14 February – Ian Spittal, footballer
• 16 February – Ally Maxwell, footballer and coach
• 22 February – John Leslie (born John Leslie Stott), television presenter
• 5 March – Carolyn Leckie, Scottish Socialist Party MSP (2003–2007)
• 8 March – Paul Martin, footballer and manager
• 20 March – William Dalrymple, historian
• 22 March – Rob Wainwright, international rugby union footballer
• 23 March – Marti Pellow (born Mark McLachlan), singer
• 26 March – Pat McFadden, Labour MP (Wolverhampton 2005– )
• 6 April – Andy Walker, footballer and TV pundit
• 11 April – Lynn Ferguson, writer, actress, comedian and presenter
• 25 April – Ally Dick, footballer
• 16 May – Stuart Millar, football player and manager
• 17 May – Keith Wright, international footballer
• 24 May – Brian Irvine, international footballer
• 28 May – Vic Kasule, footballer
• 5 June – Allan Guthrie, literary agent, author and editor of crime fiction
• 19 June – A. B. Jackson, poet
• 22 June – Jimmy Sandison, footballer
• 3 July – Tommy Flanagan, actor
• 9 July – David O'Hara, actor
• 12 July – Eric Cullen, actor (died 1996)
• 15 July – Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat politician and Secretary of State for Scotland
• 19 July – Evelyn Glennie, virtuosa percussionist
• 24 July – Julie Graham, actress
• 26 July – Hamish Clark, actor
• 11 August – Robert Fleck, international footballer and manager
• 30 August – Peter Grant, international footballer and manager
• 5 September – Murdo Fraser, Conservative MSP (2001– )
• 11 September:
  • Robert Docherty, footballer
  • Graeme Obree, racing cyclist
• 14 September – Paul McFadden, footballer
• 27 September – Rhona Cameron, comedian
• 14 October – Sandy Stewart, footballer and manager
• 20 October – Norman Blake, singer, instrumentalist and songwriter
• 22 October – A. L. Kennedy, fiction writer
• 29 October – Paul Stewart, racing driver
• 12 November – Eddie Mair, radio and television presenter
• 19 November – Douglas Henshall, actor
• 24 November – Shirley Henderson, actress
• 25 November – Dougray Scott, actor
• 28 November – Caroline Paterson, actress
• 11 December – Alison Watt, painter
• 13 December – Hugh Burns, footballer
• 20 December – Robert Cavanah, actor, writer, director and producer
• 21 December – Stuart Mitchell, pianist and composer
• 31 December – Mike Conroy, footballer
• Unknown
  • Anne Bevan, visual artist, sculptor and lecturer
  • Christine Borland, sculptor
  • Patricia Littlechild, sport shooter and neurosurgeon^[7]
  • Susan Philipsz, sound artist

• 7 January – Anne Redpath, domestic painter (born 1895)
• 1 February – Robert Spence, Labour MP
• 14 February – David Ferguson Hunter, recipient of the Victoria Cross (born 1891)
• 30 April – James William Slessor Marr, marine biologist and polar explorer (born 1902)
• 17 March – Walter Potter Ritchie, recipient of the Victoria Cross (born 1892)
• 31 March – Gerard Crole, international rugby union and cricket player (born 1894)
• 9 April – Robert Gibson, Lord Gibson, lawyer and Labour MP
• 9 May – Hugh O'Donnell, footballer (born 1913)
• 16 July – William Reid, Scottish Labour Party Member of Parliament from 1950 to 1964 (born 1889)
• 2 August – John Carmont, High Court Judge (born 1890)
• 12 August – Willie Gallacher, trade unionist, activist and communist MP (born 1881)
• 5 September – Tom Johnston, Labour MP, government minister and chairman of North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (born 1881)
• 8 October – James Nelson, international footballer (born 1901)
• 20 October – William Thomas Shaw, Unionist Party MP (born 1879)

• George Mackay Brown's poetry The Year of the Whale is published.
• The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts opens the Kelly Gallery.
• 31 December – "Pirate" radio station Radio Scotland begins broadcasting from LV Comet anchored outside U.K. territorial waters off Dunbar.

• 1965 in Northern Ireland