2020 in Scotland

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Decades:	2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 2020 in: The UK • England • Wales • Elsewhere Scottish football: 2019–20 • 2020–21 2020 in Scottish television

Events from the year 2020 in Scotland

• First Minister – Nicola Sturgeon
• Secretary of State for Scotland – Alister Jack

• 29 January – MSPs vote 64–54 to back calls for a second Scottish independence referendum.^[1]

• 6 February – Derek Mackay resigns as Finance Secretary hours before delivering his budget following reports that he messaged a sixteen-year-old boy on social media over a period of several months.^[2]
• 14 February – Jackson Carlaw is elected as leader of the Scottish Conservative Party.^[3]
• 17 February – Kate Forbes is appointed as Finance Secretary, the first woman to hold the post.^[4]

• 1 March – COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland: Authorities confirm the first case of the global COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland, the index case of coronavirus being a traveller having returned from Italy.^[5]
• 13 March – COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland: Authorities confirm the first death from COVID-19 in Scotland.^[6]

• 3 April – The results of the 2020 Scottish Labour deputy leadership election are announced, in which Jackie Baillie is elected as the deputy leader of Scottish Labour.^[7][8]

• 21 June – The 'Peebles Hoard', comprising Bronze Age horse harness, a sword in its scabbard and other artefacts including a "rattle pendant", is discovered near Peebles in the Borders by a metal detectorist.^[9]
• 26 June – Glasgow hotel stabbings.^[10]

• 4 August – The Scottish Qualifications Authority issues moderated grades to school pupils who have not been able to take examinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic;^[11] on 10 August, Nicola Sturgeon publicly accepts that her government "did not get it right" over this procedure.^[12]
• 5 August – Following the resignation on 30 July of Jackson Carlaw as leader of the Scottish Conservatives, he is succeeded by Douglas Ross MP.^[13]
• 11 August – Ruth Davidson is appointed Leader of the Scottish Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament by Douglas Ross, becoming the Leader of the Opposition again.^[14]
• 12 August – Stonehaven derailment: A passenger train derails after striking a landslip near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, with 3 deaths.^[15]

• 15 October – Kintore railway station reopens.^[16]

• 25 November – Scotland becomes the first country in the world to make it a legal duty for period products to be available to anyone for free after the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill is approved.^[17]

• 6 January – Danny Masterton, footballer (Ayr United, Clyde) (born 1954)^[18]
• 12 January – Jackie Brown, boxer, Commonwealth Games gold medallist (1958), British and Commonwealth flyweight champion (1962–1963) (born 1935)^[19]
• 15 January – Bobby Brown, Hall of Fame footballer (Rangers, Queen's Park) and manager (national team) (born 1923)^[20]

• 6 February – Jimmy Moran, footballer (Norwich City, Northampton Town, Workington) (born 1935)^[21]

• 9 March – George Strachan, cricketer (national team) (born 1932)^[22]
• 11 March – Dave Souter, footballer (Clyde, Dundee) (born 1940)^[23]
• 12 March – Alexander Gordon, 7th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, peer (born 1955)^[24]
• 30 March – Alex Forsyth, footballer (Darlington) (born 1928)^[25]

• 5 April – Dougie Morgan, rugby union player (Stewart's Melville, British and Irish Lions, national team) (born 1947)^[26]
• 14 April – Ron Wylie, footballer and manager (Notts County, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion) (born 1933)^[27]
• 23 April – John Murphy, footballer (Ayr United) (born 1942)^[28]

• 1 May – Derek Ogg, lawyer (born 1954)^[29]
• 2 May – John Ogilvie, footballer (Hibernian, Leicester City, Mansfield Town), COVID-19 (born 1928)^[30]

• 9 July – Johnny Beattie, actor (River City) and comedian (Scotch & Wry, Rab C. Nesbitt) (born 1926)^[31]
• 13 July – Pat Quinn, footballer (Motherwell, national team) and manager (East Fife) (born 1936)^[32]
• 15 July – Maurice Roëves, actor (Oh! What a Lovely War, Escape to Victory, Judge Dredd) (born 1937)^[33]
• 17 July – Alex Dawson, footballer (Manchester United, Preston North End, Brighton & Hove Albion) (born 1940)^[34]
• 21 July – Hugh McLaughlin, footballer (St Mirren, Third Lanark, Queen of the South) (born 1945)^[35]
• 24 July – David Hagen, footballer (Falkirk, Clyde, Peterhead), motor neuron disease (born 1973)^[36]

• 4 August – Willie Hunter, footballer (Motherwell, national team) and manager (Queen of the South) (born 1940)^[37]

• 7 September – Logie Bruce Lockhart, rugby union player (national team), schoolmaster, writer and journalist (born 1921)^[38]
• 20 September – Sir Malcolm Innes of Edingight, herald, Lord Lyon King of Arms of Scotland (1981–2001) (born 1938)^[39]

• 22 November – Hamish MacInnes, mountaineer (born 1930)^[40]

• 21 December – Sandy Grant Gordon, whisky distiller (born 1931)^[41]
• 26 December – Jim McLean, footballer and manager (Dundee United) (born 1937)^[42]

• 11 February – Douglas Stuart's debut novel Shuggie Bain, a story of growing up in 1980s Glasgow, is first published in the United States; it wins this year's Booker Prize.^[43]
• October – Two of the five winners of the UK 2020 ArtFund Museum of the Year Award are Aberdeen Art Gallery and Gairloch Museum.^[44]

• 2020 in England
• 2020 in Northern Ireland
• 2020 in Wales