2002 in Scotland

Events from the year 2002 in Scotland.

← 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 2002 in Scotland → 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Centuries:	19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 2002 in: The UK • England • Wales • Elsewhere Scottish football: 2001–02 • 2002–03 2002 in Scottish television

Incumbents

Further information: Politics of Scotland and Order of precedence in Scotland

• First Minister and Keeper of the Great Seal – Jack McConnell
• Secretary of State for Scotland – Helen Liddell

Law officers

• Lord Advocate – Lord Boyd of Duncansby
• Solicitor General for Scotland – Elish Angiolini
• Advocate General for Scotland – Lynda Clark

Judiciary

• Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Cullen of Whitekirk
• Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Gill
• Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord McGhie

Events

Falkirk Wheel

• February – 2002 Winter Olympics: the gold medal in women's curling is won by an all-Scottish team representing Great Britain in Salt Lake City skipped by Rhona Martin.^[1]
• 14 March – Stirling is granted city status in the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II to mark her Golden Jubilee.^[2]
• 10 February – The hit preschool television series Balamory made by BBC Scotland is first broadcast.
• 14 March – appeal of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi against a conviction for murder in connection with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie is rejected and the Scottish Court in the Netherlands is decommissioned.
• 19 March – A lesbian couple are granted parental rights over their children by an Edinburgh court.^[3]
• 29 March – Coal mining in Scotland, which has a history stretching back more than 800 years,^[4] comes to an end with the closure of Longannet coal mine in Fife after its owners go into liquidation following flooding, putting more than 500 people out of work.^[5]
• 1 May – Airdrieonians, of the Scottish Football League Division One, go into liquidation with debts of £3,000,000.^[6]
• 7 May – Prime Minister Tony Blair unveils a statue of Donald Dewar on Buchanan Street in Glasgow city centre.^[7]
• May – The Scottish Parliament meets during this month in the University of Aberdeen.^[8]
• 24 May – Falkirk Wheel boat lift opens in Scotland, also marking reopening of the Union Canal for leisure traffic.
• 28 May – The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 receives royal assent.
• 9 July – Clydebank F.C. of the Scottish Football League Second Division become defunct after a takeover by the owners of the new Airdrie United club, who take their place in the Scottish league.^[9]
• 24 July – Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park created, Scotland's first national park.^[10]
• 30 July – 2002 Glasgow floods result from heavy rain overnight.
• 1 August – The Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, that bans traditional fox hunting and hare coursing, comes into effect. A similar ban would take place in England and Wales under the Hunting Act 2004, which took effect from 18 February 2005.
• Millennium Bridge, Glasgow, opens to pedestrians.

Deaths

• 8 March – Hamish Henderson, folk song collector (born 1919)
• 30 March – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother dies aged 101 at Royal Lodge, Windsor.^[11]
• 27 May – Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson, historian and palaeographer (born 1909)^[12]
• 5 July – Jannette Anderson, academic (born 1927)
• 19 September – Rosalind Mitchison, historian (born 1919)
• October – William Dysart, actor (born 1929)
• 9 November – Neil MacCallum, political activist and poet (born 1954)
• 10 December – Ian MacNaughton, Scottish actor, director, and producer (born 1925)

The arts

• 24 September – soap opera River City is first broadcast on BBC One Scotland.
• The office of Edinburgh Makar is instituted, with poet Stewart Conn as first incumbent.^[13]
• The indie rock band Franz Ferdinand is formed in Glasgow.
• David Greig's play Outlying Islands is premiered at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
• Peter Maxwell Davies composes his Piano Trio: A Voyage to Fair Isle.

See also

• 2002 in England
• 2002 in Northern Ireland
• 2002 in Wales