It took me an embarrassingly long time to actually visit The Lighthouse, and I'm even more…read moreembarrassed to admit that I *still* haven't been up the top to look at the view over Glasgow! Next time, I promise! The Lighthouse is tucked down Mitchell Lane and has a wonderful gift shop on the ground floor. I am a certified museum-gift-shop addict and this one is nearly as good as the one at GOMA. At the moment, they're selling some great stuff to accompany the "Hello My Name is Paul Smith" exhibition and I couldn't resist getting a couple of the pencils, an eraser as well as a nice card from the range. There's a lot of nice Scottish stuff if you're looking for a gift so it's worth a browse even if you're not planning on going to an exhibition. We were there to see the Paul Smith exhibition which is on the first floor and ticketed at £6 per adult. While I think the price is a little steep, it's a fab exhibition which was really interesting, stimulating and thought-provoking - I think we were only there for half an hour or so, but really enjoyed it. I'll definitely be back sooner rather than later for a visit to the viewing platform so I'll update accordingly! But for now, I'm already a massive fan so I can't expect the rating to change for this lovely gallery.

The Lighthouse is one of Glasgow's wonder free museums/galleries. It was one of the first galleries…read moreI visited when I moved to Glasgow and I've been back a few times since, either for a specific exhibit, a general wander, or to head up the Mackintosh tower for the amazing views over the city. Much of the museum is free to access, including the permanent Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibits and the tower. Architecture is usually the theme of most of what they're showing off, although design in general is also showcased here, especially when it's by local and Scottish artists. On the ground floor there's a fantastic gift shop with lots of Mackintosh themed gifts. Usually they have items related to other exhibits as well. There's a cafe on level 5 too and although I've not visited it in a while I remember it being light and spacious and selling pretty darn good carrot cake. It's a really cool gallery to learn a little about the history of design and architecture in Glasgow, as well as learning about some more modern themes. It's also a great place for those views from the tower to get your bearings (although it's an awfully long way up a spiral staircase, so if you don't like heights it may not be for you). For me, on a sunny day, it's one of the highlights of the city centre. If you're visiting Glasgow or you have guests in Glasgow and you find yourself in the city centre then I'd say a stop at The Lighthouse is well worth the time. It would be a shame to miss out on such a cool place.

Hands down a must visit in Glasgow! Free admission!…read moreLocated in Kelvingrove Park, West End. This is a popular museum and art gallery with the likes of Dali and more. It's a large space and it's divided up by fine art, natural history, etc. I wandered through all of the rooms and believe that I saw almost every exhibit. I spent hours and just took my time taking it all in. Stopped by the cafe' for a cuppa tea too. Fantastic museum.

The museum is one of the top attractions in Glasgow. It was established in 1901- 125 years ago. The…read morearchitecture of the building itself is a marvel. I'm not much of a museum person, but entrance is free. The expansive museum's west wing focuses on "Life" (natural history/prehistory), while the east wing focuses on "Expression" (fine art). There are 22 galleries with 8,000 objects. Salvador Dalí's "Christ of Saint John of the Cross" is one of their most famous works of art. I was most interested in "The Floating Heads" installation by Sophie Cave. We spent most of our time viewing Scotland's Wildlife, where most of the kids were. While we were there, we also enjoyed an organ recital- 1:00pm Monday-Saturday and 3:00pm on Sunday.

A historic building with four floors. Wide variety of contemporary art; and free. There's also a…read morelibrary where there's places to sit and read. Figure about 45 minutes for the art. I was told the exhibits change over time; so I won't talk about specifics.

I'm afraid the most impressive thing about this gallery is the building itself, the art and…read moreexhibitions for me were sparse, dull and boring.

I visited The Hunterian, located on-campus at the University of Glasgow, for the first time on…read moreWednesday 17 July 2019. I was following a geologist on Twitter who worked/collabed with the museum (I have since deleted my account - in the first half of 2021) and decided it would be fun to check the exhibits out. The building was straightforward to find and was marked for The Hunterian. The entrance was located up some stairs and had posted hours just outside the entrance. The admission was free. I enjoyed the different exhibits overall. Workers were friendly, but not nosy. The artifacts were well labeled and contextualized. As well as items of historical significance, such as stone altars from the Romans, exhibits also highlighted different people and their contributions to social and scientific development in Scotland. As a woman who is part Scottish by ancestry, I still find it neat that the term "scientist" was coined for female Scotswoman Mary Fairfax Somerville. I found the informational placards accompanying the displayed items to be easy to understand.

We happened to come across the museum while walking around Glasgow University. It's free, so we…read moredecided to check it out. It's the oldest public museum in Scotland. There were some interesting artifacts.

A friend recommended this place and her elevator pitch was simple "it has a wall of vintage cars"…read more A very interesting museum that has transportation displays but also a recreation of a classic Scottish main street, glasgow punk vinyls, and old toys. It was one of the most unique museums we've been to and like all the museums in Scotland it was free! The architecture is interesting and was done by one of my favorite architects, Zaha Hadid. The roofline is undulating and angular and the whole form is extruded backwards toward the river to form the museum. From the back you get a very interesting view with the restored old ship and the modern museum juxtaposing each other. The interior is also distinctly Zaha, with curved lines that seem to guide you and your eyes through your space. The only jarring thing is it feels a bit disorientating, especially when trying to take photos and videos and looking for horizontal and vertical lines to help line you up. The wall of motorcycles and cars are visually stunning though the ones high up are really hard to see so I enjoyed the vehicles on the floor more because you could see everything much better. There is a second floor you can get to with all the interactive displays and a hypnotizing carousel of giant model ships that move in a continual loop.

What a fun, big and FREE museum! We spent four hours here and probably could've stayed a bit…read morelonger. We got licky and made it just in time for a FREE guided tour. The tour guide took us around the whole museum highlighting the more Scottish items. The museum is mostly transportation but also has a section that is a recreation of a 1920's street complete with shops you can walk into. I highly recommend coming solo, with friends, or family! Donations are asked to help keep this amazing museum free to the public and there is a parking lot for a fee

Free museum that gives a sense of the history of Glasgow, more from the perspective of the working…read moreman. Sure, we do learn that Glasgow has the world's 3rd oldest subway system - yet a lot is geared around the jobs people had, the lifestyles over time, the impact of wars, housing, and the neighborhoods. Took about 45 minutes for me to cover the 3 floors. I didn't do the interactive stuff though. Better for adults than kids.

I enjoyed my visit to the people's palace located in the wide open space of Glasgow green with the…read morebeautiful Doulton fountain outside and various other sculptures. The people's palace showcases exhibits of the times of the steamie, life in the old tenements of Glasgow and the achievenments of boxer Benny Lynch. There were exhibits about alcohol and its effects, prison and what it would be like in a cell, the famous Barrowland and what it was like back in the day, there were even exhibits about the war and a real air raid shelter i was able to sit in and other fascinating pieces in this museum. The museum however seems a little stale, some things were a bit tatty and exhibit doors falling loose and the cafe could use a bit of TLC and be a bit more modernised but as a whole it's a great place to visit.

The Anatomy Museum is like nowhere else in the city that I have ever been to. Where else could I…read moresee the most surreal collection of pickled human remains from the past? I think we both know the answer. If you like science or you are just interested in the human body that gets you from A to B then this is a must. The most famous item is the 100 year-old pickled penis which is worth seeing and will make you question the science of evolution. On saying that, some of the items are quite hard to look i.e. the pickled, deformed feotous. However if you have a strong stomach and an inquisitive mind then stop by. It's a free museum with a world class of collection. If you have a weak stomach then give it a miss!

Concealed in a corner of one of the university's faculties, the Anatomy Museum is designed as a…read morestudy tool for scientific students (I'm guessing biology) but it looks like it's existed since the Victorian period. It's perfectly preserved - much like the pickled heads and penises of people long deceased. If you've got a weak stomach and easily weirded out then I wouldn't recommend coming here. It's not anatomical models - you will be looking at real remains in various shapes, sizes and forms. There are a number of deformed fetus that may disturb some people. But, I've got to say, it fascinates me. It's a dusty, Frankenstein style lab full of unnerving specimens but you can't say it's not interesting! And it must be useful for biology students because you really get a close up, exact representation of the human body. I took my boyfriend here on a date - shows you what kind of people we are(!) - and he loved it. But if you're a bit of a shrinking violet stick to the art galleries!

This is a wee hidden gem of Glasgow museums, situated on the first floor of an otherwise…read morenondescript building in Bell Street. It used to be even more tucked away down near St. Andrew's Square, so I suppose at least this location gives it a higher profile. The displays occupy a couple of rooms, the first of which contains a lot of written displays, which are well worth reading as they document some amazing episodes in Glasgow's criminal history and the heroic efforts of the boys in blue who dealt with them. If it's tales of murder, mayhem and mystery you're after, this is the place to do your research. The second room is an exhibition of police uniforms from various countries around the world. I had no idea that Glasgow had so many 'firsts' in police history - the first police force, the first to use police dogs, the first to use the flat cap with the chequered band, etc. The retired officers who ...ahem... 'police' the front entrance are full of interesting facts like that. I loved the wee model police box painted red, as I can remember when Glasgow police boxes were that colour - because the boxes were maintained by the post office (who naturally only bought red paint as that's all they needed). It was only when the Glasgow police were merged into Strathclyde police that they were changed to blue to bring them in line with the rest of the country. Well worth the price of admission (it's free!), I easily spent the best part of an hour immersing myself in this historical gem. I'm only wondering why it took me so long to get round to visiting.

This is probably the smallest museum I've ever been to, but what it lacks in size it more than…read moremakes up in character. Firstly, you have to buzz a button in a traditional Glasgow tenement building (sandwiched between the excellent craft beer pub Blackfriars and the Pancho Villas Mexican restaurant) to gain access, then it's a walk up some wonderfully old stairs (or you can take a lift, it is accessible) to get to a small door in which one of the curators will greet you. Apparently they tend to get more visitors from overseas than the UK, so perhaps the place isn't that well known to Glaswegians? When you arrive the museum is in three smallish rooms. The entrance room includes a small display of police-related goods to purchase at very reasonable prices and leads you to the history of policing in Glasgow. Did you know that policing in Glasgow stretches back further into history than the "Peelers" in London? Yes, Glasgow had the first official police force in the UK (and does that mean the world?). The main room is essentially a timeline of important and interesting events in the history of Glasgow policing including some authentic uniforms, truncheons and medals. The final room is dedicated to policing around the world. Uniforms from many different countries are displayed (the Russian hat is pretty great but their special forces uniform is a bit intimidating...) along with some history of the era they come from. There's even a police hat from North Korea! I wonder how they managed to smuggle that out of the police state...

Banksy has declared this as his favorite work of art in the UK and it matches that artist's own…read morestyle and humor. The statue of the Duke of Wellington on a horse was sculpted in the late 18th century but has been famous since the 80s for the cone on its head. It's public, guerilla, and collaborative. Different "special cones" have been placed on the head to commemorate events such as Olympic gold wins but the one you will typically see is the orange traffic cone. There are other statues nearby with scarves and hats added by the public but this is the most famous. A friend from Glasgow told me how he got the cone on and despite the height I can see how locals could easily get a cone on the head when no one is around around. The tradition on has spread and I saw it on some statues in Edinburgh, but nothing beats the original. If you go in for a closet look there are stickers slapped on and little doodles. Lots near the horses rear :)

I knew that when I visited Scotland I would make a point to stop by the Duke of Wellington Statue…read more The statue was placed in honor of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington. It was erected in 1844 and stands on the Royal Exchange Square. For over 140 years the statue stood untouched but by the early 1980's a jokester placed a traffic come on his head. Since it's first occurrence the Glasgow City Council and the police have exhausted themselves attempting to permanently remove the traffic cone. For over thirty years each time the cone is removed a new one appears within days. The council not only did not want the cone on the head of this statue but they also worried about someone getting hurt or cause damage to the statue while replacing the cone. In 2013 they came up with the bright idea to double the height of the statue to put an end to the shenanigans. This caused a "Keep the Cone" movement. In the end everyone agreed that the placing the cone on the statue is not an act of vandalism. The statue with the cone on his head is a representation of local culture. The cone is allowed to stay and is on a list of the top ten most bizarre monuments on earth. I think that this is a great story and shows off an awesome sense of humor and the ability for the government to stand down and allow the people to express themselves.