Some of the industries which had provided Scottish people with work ran into trouble in the 1960s.
Coal had once been Scotland 鈥檚 most important industry but in the sixties many coal mines closed across Scotland . Coal was running out and it was expensive to mine. It became cheaper for Britain to buy coal from other countries than it was to get it from Scotland.
The textile industry also suffered - losing out to other countries who were selling similar fabrics at cheaper rates.
The Steelworks in Ravenscraig.
However, some industries did well in the sixties - a motor factory in Bathgate, a steelworks in Ravenscraig, a paper pulp mill in Fort William. The Highlands and Islands Development Board was set up to encourage more businesses to come to the North of Scotland. The electronics industry in Scotland also boomed.
In 1965 natural gas was discovered under the North Sea. Then, in 1969, giant oil fields were discovered just off the northern east coast of Scotland, near Aberdeen. In the following years more and more oil and gas fields were discovered. Oil and gas made money, created jobs and brought new people to Scotland. But it changed life in the North East of Scotland and in the Shetland and Orkney Islands. As more people and industries arrived, the quiet life they once had was disrupted.