Events from the year 1996 in Scotland.

• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Michael Forsyth

• 13 March – Dunblane school massacre – a gunman kills sixteen children, their teacher and himself at a primary school in Dunblane, Stirling. The killer, who wounded thirteen other children and another teacher, is quickly identified as 43-year-old former scout leader Thomas Watt Hamilton.^[1]
• 1 April – The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 takes effect with 32 unitary councils replacing the 9 Regional Councils, 53 District Councils and 3 unitary authorities that had been established under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.
• 18 May – Rangers F.C., who have already won the Scottish Football League title, complete the Scottish double by beating Hearts 5–1 in the Scottish Cup final.
• 5 July – Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at The Roslin Institute in Midlothian.
• October – The Shetland Times and The Shetland News become involved in a landmark legal case over alleged copyright infringement and deep linking in their websites.^[2]
• 9 November – Irvine, North Ayrshire, is designated a New Town, the last of the five created in Scotland.
• 30 November (St. Andrew's Day) – The Stone of Scone is installed in Edinburgh Castle 700 years after it was removed from Scotland by King Edward I of England.^[3]
• Edinburgh Old Town and New Town become the first World Heritage Site in mainland Scotland.
• First of the Maggie's Centres for drop-in cancer care in the UK opens in Edinburgh.

• 13 January – Craig Storie, footballer
• 8 February – Jaison McGrath, footballer
• 1 March – Lizzie Arnot, footballer^[4]
• 15 March – Seonaid McIntosh, sport shooter^[5]
• 19 March – Kaiya Jones, actress
• 9 May – Grace Reid, diver^[6]
• 3 August – Robert MacIntyre, golfer
• 10 August – Lauren Tait, netball player^[7]
• 7 October – Lewis Capaldi, singer-songwriter

• 23 January – Norman MacCaig, poet (born 1910)
• 6 March – Stanley Booth-Clibborn, retired bishop of Manchester (born 1924 in London)
• 19 March – W. H. Murray, mountaineer and writer (born 1913)
• 13 April – George Mackay Brown, poet (born 1921)
• 14 April – David Brand, Lord Brand, advocate, sheriff and Senator of the College of Justice (born 1923)
• 16 August – Eric Cullen, actor famous for playing "Wee Burnie" in Rab C. Nesbitt (born 1965)
• 25 August – Caroline Glachan, murder victim (born 1982)
• 24 November – Sorley MacLean, poet (born 1911)

• January – Indie pop band Belle and Sebastian is formed in Glasgow; on 6 June their debut album Tigermilk is released.
• James MacMillan's first opera Inés de Castro is premièred by Scottish Opera in Glasgow.
• Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow opens.

• 1996 in Northern Ireland