Below is my top 10 list of free things to do in Glasgow at any time of year.
1. Gallery of Modern Art
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| Gallery of Modern Art with Coned Duke of Wellington |
2. The Burrell
Collection
Paintings, sculptures, tapestries, ceramics, stained glass,
furniture, silver and metal work are but some of the wonderful and unusual
objects, from nearly every period in history, on display at the Burrell Collection. This collection belonged to ne man, Sir
William Burrell, a wealthy Glasgow ship owner, who started collecting in his
teens and was still adding to his collection in his nineties. When he donated the 8000 objects and £450,000
to construct a building to Glasgow Corporation in 1944, he stipulated that the
collection should be in a rural setting but no more than 16 miles from the city
centre. Debates about where it should be
housed went on for many years and the collection remained in storage for nearly
40 years after his death in 1958 at the age of 96. It wasn’t until 1983 that the predominately
glass building in a wooded section of Pollok Park opened to the public.
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| The Burrell Collection in Pollok Park |
3. Pollok Park
There are over 90 parks to choose from in Glasgow but I’ve
chosen Pollok Park not because it’s Glasgow’s largest park, nor because it’s
Glasgow’s only Country Park but because it is home to about 100 highland cattle
– the collective name of which, you may be interested to know, is a fold. The park itself is in beautiful woodland with
themed trails, riverside walks and an orienteering course. Every year around September or October, it
plays host to the Highland Cattle Show and you can even subscribe to Pollok
Park’s newsletter, ‘The Hairy Coo Herald’.
4. The Hunterian Museum
Part of Glasgow University, the Hunterian Museum has recently
undergone refurbishment Apart from the architecture of many of Glasgow University’s
buildings, this museum is a treasure of archaeology, palaeontology, Ancient
Egypt and other world cultures.
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| Glasgow School of Art designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh |
5. Charles Rennie
Mackintosh
There are examples of Mackintosh’s work all over the city
from The Glasgow School of Art, The Willow Tea Rooms, The Mackintosh Church at
Queen’s Cross (the only church Mackintosh designed), The Lighthouse, originally designed as offices for the Glasgow
Herald Newspaper and in the south side of the city, Scotland Street School and the House
for an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park.
Although the House for an Art Lover is not free, it is worth a visit for
the architecture of the outside and park grounds which include a Victorian walled
garden and a sunken garden.
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| Inside the Glasshouse of Queen's Park |
6. Queens Park
While over on the south side of the city, you may want to pay
a visit to the Queen’s Park. It is
situated on a mound of boulder clay left there by the last Ice Age and reaches
a height of 65 metres above sea level providing great views north into the city
and beyond to the Campsie Fells. Despite
being created during the reign of Queen Victoria and being situated at the end
of Victoria Road, Queen’s Park is actually dedicated to Mary Queen of Scots
whose army fought the Battle of Langside in 1568 at the south eastern edge of
the park.
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| Finnieston Crane at the SECC |
7. Walk the Clyde
Walkway
The Clyde walkway is 40 miles long beginning from the city
centre and finishing in New Lanark. But
before you completely rule this option out, if you just walk the first few
miles from the SECC you’ll pass some interesting places like the Glasgow
Science Centre, The Waverley Paddle Steamer, the last of its kind and the tall
ship, Glenlee which has circumnavigated the world 4 times since she was
launched in 1896. She is berthed outside
the Riverside Museum, Glasgow’s newest free museum which provides an insight
into the role Glasgow played in transport and technology.
You may even see the sea plane take off or land in the river.
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| Templeton's Carpet Factory |
8. Glasgow Green
If you carry on along the walkway for another mile or so, it
will bring you to Glasgow Green. Home to the People’s Palace, a museum devoted
to Glasgow’s social history from 1750 to the end of the 20th Century;
the huge glasshouse of the Winter Gardens and the Templeton’s carpet factory,
designed to imitate Doge’s Palace in Venice but now unfortunately just a
business centre.
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| The People's Palace and Glasshouse |
9. Glasgow University
Zoological Museum
Like most natural history museums, specimens are stuffed and
labelled and stuck behind glass.
However, this museum has something a little bit extra – live animals. Yes.
Bearded dragons from Australia greet you as you enter the museum and
other little critters like snakes, lizards and invertebrates live there too. For the ophidiophobias among you don’t panic.
The live animals may not be stuffed or labelled but they are all behind glass.
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| Fossil Grove @ Victoria Park |
10. Fossil Grove
It might surprise you to learn that Glasgow and its
surrounding areas are rather well known for fossils. Not the wrinkly old people kind of fossils but
the flora and fauna turned to stone palaeontological kind. One of the best places to see all kinds of
local fossil examples is at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. However, if seeing some fossils in situ seems
quite appealing, head to Fossil Grove, situated in Victoria Park in the west
end of Glasgow. There you will find
fossilised tree stumps that were discovered in 1887, a small section of a vast
ancient forest that grew in a tropical swamp similar to the climate the Florida
Everglades experiences today. Oh how I
wish Glasgow still had a climate like that.
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| Fossil Grove |
I have deliberately not listed the Kelvingrove Art Gallery
and museum in my top 10 because I wanted to choose 10 unusual and less well
known features. However, the Kelvingrove
museum is probably one of the most interesting museums in the city and
certainly located in one of the nicest settings, situated just below the
University of Glasgow and beside the River Kelvin.
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