Free things to do in Glasgow

20 places in Glasgow with free entry or no charge, based on guide listings and map data.

Ranked with the travel guide's picks and well-known places first.

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Botanic Gardens
Extensive gardens established in 1842 besides the River Kelvin, with tropical and temperate plants. Its distinctive landmark is the Kibble Palace, a 19th-century wrought-iron temperate glasshouse, rebuilt 2004-06.
Gardens 7AM to dusk, glasshouses noon to 4PMFree
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City Chambers
The City Council headquarters were built in 1888 in Italian Renaissance style. Tours take in the marble staircases, lobbies, debating chamber and banqueting hall. Public tours are conducted M-F at 10:30AM and 2:30PM. Tickets for the tour can be obtained from the reception desk 30 minutes prior to each tour commencing.
Free
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Crookston Castle
Ruin of a turret built in 1400 within a 12th-century earthwork, and repaired after a siege of 1544. It's perched on a hill over the Levern Water and has an unusual "X" design: a sturdy central keep within four corner towers; only the northeast of these survives.
Apr-Sep: daily; Oct-Mar: Sat-WedFree
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Fairfield Heritage Centre
Govan became the city's main shipbuilding quarter once the Clyde channel was blasted open, and Fairfield was one of its leading companies. Built to impress in 1891, these were the august headquarters of a series of shipbuilders until the last vacated in 2001. It's now a heritage space and museum of Clyde shipbuilding.
Summer daily 11AM-4PM, winter Mon-Fri 1PM-4PMFree
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Fossil Grove
The remains of an ancient forest of Lepidodendron, extinct giant quillworts. About 330 million years ago this area flooded with mud, which killed the trees but made casts of their trunks. They were discovered during quarrying in 1887, and enclosed by a building for protection. This is open at weekends, while the rest of Victoria Park is always open.
Sat Sun noon-4PMFree
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Gallery of Modern Art
GoMA
It houses rotating exhibitions of contemporary work; there isn't a permanent collection, but exhibitions generally reside for several months. In the basement is one of Glasgow's many public libraries. The building was erected in 1778 as the town house of a tobacco merchant and slave-trader, and the Corinthian pillar frontage was added around 1830. The equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington arrived in 1844 and almost ever since has had a traffic cone perched his head. Every so often the Council removes it, but next day it re-incarnates.
Mon-Wed Sat 10AM-5PM, Fri Sun 11AM-5PMFree
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Glasgow Cathedral
This was built in 1197 but much modified in the 13th century and is a fine example of medieval Gothic. It's dedicated to St Mungo, the city's patron saint, who is buried in the crypt. The Church of Scotland doesn't have bishops so it actually only a parish church.
Mon-Sat 10AM-noon, 1-4PM; Sun 1-4PMFree
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Glasgow Police Museum
Early police forces had a variety of roles that were later separated as firefighting, event security, night-watch and sanitary regulation (which often meant extorting bribes from the sex trade). Glasgow had the world's first police force from 1779, but it lacked state backing and folded. The first regular force was from 1800, and since then has grappled with criminals' ingenuity, but fortunately more often their gob-smacking stupidity. This small but well-stocked museum takes you through the history.
Apr-Oct: Mon-Sat 10:30AM-4:30PM, Sun noon-4:30PM; Nov-Mar: Tue Sun 10AM-4:30PMFree
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Govan Stones
Govan Old Church
The present church is from 1888, but there's been a church here since the 6th century, and from about 900 AD it looks to have been the ecclesiastic centre and royal burial ground of the Kingdom of Strathcylde. There's an impressive collection of 9th-11th century tombs and grave slabs, many of Norse "hogback" design, suggesting that Vikings and ancient Britons coexisted here whenever they weren't hacking each other to bits. Many stones were lost when Govan shipyards were demolished and they were mistaken for masonry rubble, and the survivors have been moved within the church for safekeeping.
Apr-Oct daily 11AM-4PMFree
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Hunterian Zoology Museum
"Zoology" over the door proclaims the intent, and it's a classical natural history museum where stuffed animals regard you with reproachful glass eyes.
Mon-Fri 9AM-5PMFree
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Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Magnificent public gallery and museum, opened in 1901 as a legacy of the 1888 International Exhibition. It's in red sandstone, in sort-of Spanish Baroque via St Pancras, and was refurbished in 2006. Extensive collections and displays, well-geared to children and families. The 22 galleries cover natural history, civilisation from ancient Egypt to the present, big-name artists such as Dalí, Van Gogh, Monet and Rembrandt, and furnishings by Rennie Mackintosh. A Supermarine Spitfire hangs in the main hall. The organ in the main hall has recitals M-Sa at 1PM and Sundays at 3PM.
Mon-Thu Sat 10AM-5PM, Fri Sun 11AM-5PMFree
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Mitchell Library
Grand Edwardian Baroque pile endowed by the Mitchell tobacco fortune and opened in 1911. It houses a huge municipal public reference library, with over a million volumes and many more primary source archives for tracing family and civic history. It was gutted by fire in 1962 but the facade survived, and in 1980 a less-than-elegant extension was added with an events venue.
Mon-Thu 9AM-8PM, Fri Sat 9AM-5PMFree
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People's Palace
This is a great folk museum, telling the history of Glasgow and its people from 1750 to 2000. One of Billy Connolly's banana boots is on display. The Winter Gardens are a large adjacent glasshouse. As of May 2026, the museum and glasshouse are closed for refurbishment, with the timeline for re-opening unclear.
Mon-Thu Sat 10AM-5PM, Fri Sun 11AM-5PMFree
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Riverside Museum
Offers an excellent collection of vehicles and models telling the story of transport by land and sea, with a unique Glasgow flavour. Besides the usual rail locomotives, buses, trams, cars and planes, the museum also includes a recreated Subway station and a street scene of old Glasgow. The museum was designed by Zaha Hadid and completed in 2011.
Mon-Thu, Sat 10AM-5PM, Fri Sun 11AM-5PMFree
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Hunterian Museum
The Hunterian artwork and dead animals are now in separate buildings, so this museum is on the theme of civilisation. It exhibits many Roman findings from the Antonine Wall, the development of medicine in Glasgow, and Kelvin's scientific instruments. "Curating Discomfort" confronts the many links between the collections and Western colonialism, slavery, tobacco and partial versions of history.
Tue-Sun 10AM-5PMFree
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Provand's Lordship
Glasgow's oldest remaining house, built in 1471, has been renovated to illustrate city life circa 1700.
Closed until late 2023Free
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St Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art
This depicts Glasgow's patron saint and the growth of Christianity in the city, and of other faiths practised locally and worldwide.
Mon-Thu, Sat 10AM-5PM, Fri, Sun 11AM-5PMFree
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Tall Ship
Glenlee
The Glenlee was built in 1896, a three-masted cargo barque. She plied to Australia then was sold for use as a Spanish training vessel. She was eventually laid up in Ferrol, and in 1990 on the verge of being scrapped, but was towed to Glasgow for restoration.
Apr-Oct 10AM-5PM, Nov-Mar 10AM-4PMFree
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Transmission Gallery
A gallery set up in 1983 by former students of Glasgow School of Art as a hub for the local art community and to provide exhibition space.
Tue-Sat 11AM-5PMFree
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Street Level Photoworks
An alternative art gallery and installation space.
Tue-Sun noon-5PMFree

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to Glasgow (CC BY-SA 4.0).