What is undoubtedly Scotland’s coolest city, Glasgow sits on the banks of the River Clyde and has evolved from one of the great industrial epicentres of the early 20th century to a thriving cultural hub. Scots are known for their hospitality, and there’s a generosity of spirit here, meaning there are nearly endless free things to do in Glasgow, emphasising creativity in all its forms.
It might be less polished than the capital, Edinburgh, over to the east, but it has more grit and gumption – characteristics that have helped earn it a treasured place in the hearts of many. It’s packed to the rafters with warm locals, interesting art galleries, incredible architecture – both old and new – and some of the most beautiful restaurants in the whole of Scotland.
Our perfect day of free things to do in Glasgow starts with a wander down the banks of the Clyde to the sculptural Riverside Museum before heading back into the West End for an organ recital and a peek into one of the finest examples of Victorian glass houses, in the Botanic Gardens. Once you’re here, you may as well head to Crabshakk around the corner for scallops in sage and anchovy butter – you’ve saved money all day, after all, and it’s one of the best restaurants in Glasgow.
1. Riverside Museum
Previously opposite the Kelvingrove Museum, what was once the Glasgow Museum of Transport found a new home beside the Clyde in 2011 after a four-year, award-winning build spearheaded by architect Dame Zaha Hadid. This sweeping sculptural building is clad in glinting silver sheeting. It houses 3000 items that reflect the depth and breadth of the city’s impact across industries like shipbuilding, transport and engineering. It’s a fascinating collection of historic vehicles and modern-day milestones, as well as being home to a reconstructed Victorian street; complete with carriages, shops and even a pub that you can sit inside. If you’re not transported out, there’s also the Glasgow Tall Ship just outside.
Address: 100 Pointhouse Road, Glasgow, G3 8RS
Website: glasgowlife.org.uk
Opening times: Monday - Thursday, Saturday: 10am-5pm; Friday and Sunday: 11am-5pm
2. Glasgow City Chambers
With a claim to fame of boasting more marble than the Vatican, Glasgow City Chambers can comfortably call itself one of the most handsome civic buildings in the world. It’s the perfect example of just how much wealth was generated here before the 1900s and was opened by Queen Victoria herself. The most impressive element has to be the marble and alabaster staircase, which is the largest example in Western Europe. Free tours at 10.30am and 2.30pm every day allow you to discover the stairway as well as 1.5 million mosaic floor tiles laid in intricate patterns, sweeping marble columns and a whole raft of some of Scotland’s most famous artworks.
Address: George Square, Glasgow, G2 1DU
Website: glasgow.gov.uk
Opening times: Monday - Thursday: 9am-5pm
3. Glasgow Women’s Library
In the East End, the Glasgow Women’s Library was established over three decades ago to document the social history of women in the city and is now the UK’s only accredited museum solely dedicated to the stories and lives of women. The exterior is an attractive sandstone building, while the interiors are fairly perfunctory. This is more a place to deep-dive into women’s history rather than an aesthetic pitstop. However, there is a regular rota of events, talks and exhibitions that are worth researching before your visit, if you’d like something more visually stimulating.
Address: 23 Landressy Street, Bridgeton, G40 1BP
Website: womenslibrary.org.uk
Opening times: Tuesday - Wednesday and Friday: 10am–4.30pm; Thursday: 10am-7pm; Saturday: 12-4pm; Sunday: closed
4. The Burrell Collection
The legacy of Sir William Burrell (one of Glasgow’s wealthiest shipping merchants), the Burrell Collection is the culmination of a lifetime’s love of art and antiques. The museum's contents were gifted to Glasgow, and when the museum opened in 1983, it marked an important shift for the city, as it transitioned into one of the UK’s cultural epicentres. The contents are an assemblage that has earned the museum its title as one of the UK’s most significant galleries. After an extensive refurbishment, it reopened in 2022 and now includes a sweeping, light-filled hall – perfect for studying or picnicking in – as well as exhibits that range from mediaeval glass windows to ancient Chinese art and pieces by world-renowned artists such as Degas.
Address: 2060 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow, G43 1AT
Website: burrellcollection.com
Opening times: Monday - Thursday, Saturday: 10am-5pm; Friday and Sunday: 11am-5pm
5. People’s Palace
Originally the People’s Palace was built as a gathering place for workers who otherwise existed in cramped conditions in Glasgow’s East End. Here they were encouraged to engage with the arts in the recreational spaces, reading rooms, museum and gallery. Still a free museum, it’s now used as a canvas where curators tell the stories of ordinary people from the 1700s right through to today. There’s a sweet cafe on the ground floor, and the classic Victorian glass house with its domed roof is currently the subject of much campaigning to be restored to its former glory. If that’s not enough for you (and you enjoy niche records), the People’s Palace is also the site of the largest terracotta fountain in the world.
Address: Templeton Street, Glasgow, G40 1AT
Website: glasgowlife.org.uk
Opening times: Monday - Thursday: 10am-5pm; Friday and Sunday: 11am-5pm; Saturday: closed
6. Ashton Lane
There’s nowhere quite like Ashton Lane anywhere else in the city. This quirky little street could be the set of a Harry Potter film with its festoon light canopy. It’s a cobbled lane with double-height bars and restaurants on each side, with twisted staircases and balconies that reach into pointed gable roofs. There’s also a cinema complete with velvet sofas and a wine bar, plus one of Glasgow’s most iconic restaurants: the Ubiquitous Chip. While the latter doesn’t form part of the free fun, even a wander down the lane makes for a nice fifteen minutes, and then you’re in the heart of the West End for other treasures like the Glasgow Botanic Gardens and the University’s cloisters.
Address: Ashton Lane, Glasgow, G12 8SJ
7. The Huntarian Museum
Boasting the title of Scotland’s oldest museum, the Huntarian is a unique step back in time. It’s housed within the University of Glasgow, and the main space is a double-height room with a balcony running around the entire periphery. It smells slightly of formaldehyde and old books and houses a weird and wonderful array of exhibits. Perhaps not one for sensitive stomachs, the collection includes conjoined, pickled animals and bottles filled with preserved embryos and other medicinal and anatomical objects of interest, including a rare plaster cast of a gravid uterus. Other more mainstream pieces run from a rare Egyptian sarcophagus to Scotland’s first dinosaur footprint. Please note that some of the more sensitive items can be viewed by appointment only.
Address: 9 University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QQ
Website: gla.ac.uk
Opening times: Tuesday - Sunday: 10am–5pm; Monday: closed
8. Outlier Running Club
The cool kids of Glasgow gather every weekend outside one of the east end’s best bakeries – Outlier – to run together with a motto that reads “Look pro, run slow”. There’s an everyone’s welcome atmosphere, and there are generally two loops to pick from; a 5: and a 10k. Times and details are well documented via the group’s Instagram page, but the standard fixtures include a 7.30am leg stretch on Saturdays and a satellite schedule that includes running from the Mitchell Library at 7am on Thursdays. The morning ends with free filter coffee back at the cafe, a chance to catch up with fellow athletes, and an excuse to enjoy some of the kitchen’s breakfast specials or skilful pastries. If running is your thing, there are also a couple of Saturday morning Park Runs in Glasgow each week – one in the West End in Victoria Park and one in Southside at Pollock Country Park. Both start at 9.30am and are free to do.
Address: 38 London Road, Glasgow, G1 5NB
Website: Instagram.com
Opening times: Saturday: 7:30am (Outlier Cafe); Tuesday: 6.30pm (Langside hall); Thursdays: 7am (Mitchell Library)
9. Glasgow Cathedral
With its history stretching back to Mediaeval times, Glasgow Cathedral is the city’s oldest building and makes for a fascinating insight into the fluid religious landscape in Scotland over the centuries. The cathedral took 350 years to finish and started as a catholic place of worship where it’s thought Glasgow’s patron saint, Saint Mungo is buried. During the Protestant Reformation, many of the gildings of Catholicism were stripped out, but more recently art and architectural changes were gradually reintroduced. It’s Scotland’s largest place of worship, and inside you’ll find a high altar surrounded by astonishing Gothic stained glass windows that point heavenward. Look out for seasonal concerts held in the crypts.
Address: Castle Street, Glasgow, G4 0QZ
Website: glasgowcathedral.org
Opening times: Monday-Saturday: 9.30am–5.30pm; Sunday: 1-5.30pm
10. Pollock Country Park
Glasgow means ‘Dear Green Place’ in Scots Gaelic, and for good reason – it has 90 parks, and this is its largest, covering over 300 acres. It also has mountain bike trails and bluebell-filled woods, not to mention a golf course, stables, and a field of highly photogenic, marmalade-hued Highland cows. At its heart is Pollok House, a grand Edwardian stately home managed by the National Trust for Scotland, with a café, elegant formal gardens, a picture-perfect water mill and manicured lawns.
A cycle ride to Pollok Country Park is also a great idea. It features the River Clyde, the sci-fi architecture of the Science Museum and its nearby tower, green spaces, residential roads and bridges across the occasional motorway. Book with Nextbike.
Address: 2060 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow, G43 1AT
Website: glasgow.gov.uk
Opening times: Monday - Sunday: 10am–6pm
11. Glasgow Botanic Gardens
The Glasgow Botanic Gardens is home to exceptional florae. Inside its conservatories, you’ll find a steamy tropical jungle, an otherworldly collection of orchids, an arid space for cacti and succulents, and more. Outdoors, abundant displays of crocuses, daffodils, azaleas, camellias, rhododendrons and tulips emerge across spring and summer, and there is an edible plant garden to take inspiration from. Kibble Palace – a beguiling greenhouse with its teacake dome – was once privately owned and located on Loch Long. In 1873, having been dismantled, transported by barge and enlarged through the initiative of its owner, it reopened as an event space before becoming the horticultural destination it is today.
Address: 730 Great Western Road, Glasgow, G12 0UE
Website: glasgowbotanicgardens.com
Opening times: Monday - Sunday: 7am–6pm
12. University of Glasgow
A visit to Glasgow University shouldn’t be missed. Its elaborate neo-Gothic architecture is arguably the finest and certainly some of the city’s most iconic. Sitting above Kelvingrove Park, behind the main building visitors have an excellent vantage point across the west end and beyond – on clear days, hills rise in the distance. The blonde sandstone cloisters connect the East and West quadrangles via a network of beautiful, light and shadow-filled arches, making the perfect photography pitstop. Elsewhere you’ll find a beautiful chapel plus squares surrounded by townhouses which were previously occupied by professors but are now used as offices and classrooms.
Address: University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QQ
Website: gla.ac.uk
Opening times: Monday - Sunday: 7am–6pm
13. Mugdock Country Park
One of Glasgow’s most special features is its proximity to nature, and the west coast is famous for its many beaches and lochs. Just 10 miles north of the city, you’ll also find the magical Mugdock Country Park, which serves as a starting point for the West Highland Way, a hiking route for campers in search of Scotland’s great wilderness. Except for a handful of conservation sites, including a mediaeval castle and World War II battery, much of Mugdock Park’s natural landscapes seem virtually untouched. Wild deer may sprint through trees as you wander along streams, up hills, and through boundless ferns and bluebells.
Address: Mugdock, Glasgow, G62 8EL
Website: mugdock-country-park.org.uk
Opening times: Monday - Sunday: 9am-5pm
14. Glasgow Necropolis
Glasgow’s beautiful 37-acre Necropolis in the East End stacks a hillside overlooking the city. Ornate tombs and monuments, built in various architectural styles, dominate this Victorian garden cemetery, along with elms, ivy and other wildlife. The Necropolis looks down on the stunning Glasgow Cathedral, which, dating back to the 1100s, is the oldest building in the city and the only structure of its kind in Britain to have survived the Reformation. The burial ground was, nonetheless, always non-denominational: its first occupant, in 1832, was a Jewish jeweller; its second, buried in 1833, was the Christian wife of the cemetery’s superintendent. A staggering 50,000 prominent and wealthy people were subsequently buried on its slopes. While you’re here, check out nearby Celentano’s – one of the city’s best restaurants serving small snacks, pasta and seconds.
Address: Castle Street, Glasgow, G4 0UZ
Website: glasgownecropolis.org
Opening times: Monday - Sunday: 7am-4.30pm
15. The Mitchell Library
Thanks to Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who helped to establish many of Glasgow’s local libraries, Glasgow is a well-read city – with some unusual libraries that are well worth a browse. The Mitchell Library is one of Europe’s largest public libraries and has an impressive copper dome and over a million books inside, including the city’s archive. Here you’ll also find 200 beautiful study spaces spread over five floors, which are mostly free to use and accessible via lifts. The ideal place to shelter from the rain with a book for an hour or two or the perfect spot to delve into the city’s history.
Address: North Street, Glasgow, G3 7DN
Website: glasgownecropolis.org
Opening times: Monday - Thursday: 9am–8pm; Friday - Saturday: 9am-5pm; Sunday: closed
16. Kelvingrove Museum
A central thread in the fabric of Glasgow’s most iconic architecture, the Kelvingrove is one of Scotland’s most popular tourist destinations. The building’s red sandstone facade is typical of the area in terms of materials, but the impressive design was inspired by the Spanish Baroque style. When it opened in 1901 for the Glasgow International Exhibition, the organ was commissioned as a showpiece. Still in situ, this towering exhibit boasts 2889 pipes. If you arrive at 1pm Monday - Saturday, you’ll be treated to an organ recital in the expansive hall as the music echoes around you. Come Sundays the show is at 3pm, and is slightly more classical in tone. Near Christmas, there are free candlelight concerts.
Address: Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AG
Website: glasgowlife.org.uk
Opening times: Monday - Thursday, Saturday: 10am-5pm; Friday and Sunday: 11am-5pm