Events from the year 1981 in Scotland.

• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – George Younger

• 1 February – Decriminalisation of homosexual acts between men over 21 years of age through the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980, Section 80, which enters into force on this day.
• 5 March – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer manufactured by Timex in Dundee, is launched by Sinclair Research, going on to sell over 1.5 million units worldwide.
• May
  • Peugeot closes the Talbot car plant at Linwood, Renfrewshire, which was opened by the Rootes Group eighteen years earlier as Scotland's only car factory.
  • Buchan Oil Field production begins in the North Sea.
• 23 May – Scotland beat England 1-0 at Wembley.
• 11 December – Closure of Bedlay Colliery, Glenboig.
• 21 December – George Wood (Aberdeen) Ltd cease trawler operations.
• Undated
  • Last manufacture of coal gas in the UK, at Millport, Isle of Cumbrae.^[1]
  • Invergordon aluminium smelter closes.
  • Livingston Skatepark opens, the first in Scotland.^[2]

• 15 January – Sean Lamont, rugby player
• 16 February – Alison Rowatt, field hockey midfielder
• 19 February – Mark Boyle, snooker player
• 28 February – Mark Brown, footballer
• 25 March – Emily Smith, folk singer
• 11 June – Alistair McGregor, field hockey goalkeeper
• 14 June – Alastair Kellock, rugby union player
• 11 August – Sandi Thom, pop singer-songwriter
• 28 August – Kezia Dugdale, leader of the Scottish Labour Party
• 7 September – Natalie McGarry, MP convicted of embezzlement^[3]
• 16 September – David Mitchell, field hockey defender
• 20 November – Scott Hutchison, indie rock singer-songwriter and visual artist (suicide 2018)
• Catriona Shearer, television news presenter

• 6 January – A. J. Cronin, novelist (born 1896)
• 23 February – Nan Shepherd, novelist and poet (born 1893)
• June – Wendy Wood, nationalist campaigner (born 1892 in England)
• 22 August – Mairi Chisholm, nurse and ambulance driver in World War I, one of "The Madonnas of Pervyse" (born 1896)
• 8 September – Bill Shankly, football manager (born 1913)
• 19 October – Johnny Doyle, footballer (born 1951)
• 1 December – James Monteith Grant, herald and Lord Lyon King of Arms (born 1903)

• 30 March – release of historical drama film Chariots of Fire that tells the story of devout Christian Eric Liddell competing in the 1924 Olympics.
• 23 April – release of romantic comedy film Gregory's Girl.
• Alasdair Gray's first novel Lanark: A Life in Four Books is published in Edinburgh.
• Perrier Comedy Awards first presented to the best shows on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
• The Bluebells formed.
• First Fèis Bharraigh.

• 1981 in Northern Ireland
• 1981 in Wales