1941 in Scotland

Incumbents

• Monarch – George VI
• Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Ernest Brown until 8 February; then Tom Johnston

  Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Thomas Mackay Cooper until June; then James Reid
• Solicitor General for Scotland – James Reid until June; Sir David King Murray

  Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Normand
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Aitchison, then Lord Cooper
• Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Murray, then Lord Gibson

  Events

• 17 January – a German Heinkel He 111 meteorological aircraft is crash-landed on Fair Isle.
• 5 February – the cargo ship runs aground on Eriskay.
• 12 February – Tom Johnston is appointed Secretary of State for Scotland, a post which he holds until the end of the wartime coalition.
• 24 February – SS Jonathan Holt is torpedoed in a convoy off Cape Wrath by German submarine U-97 with the loss of 51 of her 57 crew, including English travel writer Robert Byron.
• 13–14 March – Clydebank Blitz: bombing of Clydebank.
• 6–7 May – Greenock Blitz: Greenock is intensively bombed.
• 10 May – Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland claiming to be on a peace mission.
• 12 May – the Honours of Scotland are secretly buried within Edinburgh Castle as a precaution against invasion.
• 2 June – 2 adults and 8 children are killed at Buckhaven when a naval mine explodes on the foreshore.
• 30 August – first official 'Shetland bus' clandestine mission using Norwegian fishing boats between Shetland and German-occupied Norway.
• 5 November – the Commercial Bar in Fraserburgh receives a direct hit from a German bomb, killing over 30.
• Loudoun Castle is gutted by fire.
• The Polish School of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh founded

  Births

• 15 January - Colin Matthew, historian and academic
• 7 March - Stewart McLean, actor and businessman
• 8 March - Norman Stone, historian
• 14 March - Ishbel MacAskill, Scottish Gaelic singer and teacher
• 9 April – Hannah Gordon, television actress
• 9 May – John Wheatley, Lord Wheatley, lawyer and judge
• 18 May – Malcolm Longair, astrophysicist
• 22 May – Menzies Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrats
• 22 May - Alec Monteath, actor and television announcer
• 19 June - Duncan Forbes, footballer
• 25 June - Eddie Large, born Edward McGinnis, comedian
• 4 August - David R. Morrison, author, editor and painter
• 19 August - Tony Roper, actor
• 10 November - David Ashton, actor and writer
• 22 November – Tom Conti, actor
• 25 December – Kenneth Calman, medical researcher and academic
• 31 December – Alex Ferguson, footballer and manager
• Jenni Calder, literary historian
• Frances M Hendry, writer of historical fiction
• Anthony Miller, murderer, second-last criminal to be executed in Scotland
• Andrew Robertson, actor

  Deaths

• 3 January - William Mustart Lockhart, watercolour painter
• 6 April – Kenneth Campbell, airman, posthumous Victoria Cross recipient
• 12 April – Charles Murray, Doric dialect poet and civil engineer
• 19 June – William James Cullen, Lord Cullen, judge
• 29 June – Sir Alexander MacEwen, solicitor, Provost of Inverness and first Scottish National Party leader
• 17 July – Charles Melvin, soldier, Victoria Cross recipient
• 3 December – Neil Harris, footballer and manager

  The arts

• A. J. Cronin's novel The Keys of the Kingdom is published.
• Compton Mackenzie's comic novel The Monarch of the Glen is published.
• Sydney Goodsir Smith's first collection Skail Wind - Poems is published in Edinburgh.