| 1. Kelvingrove Museum |
The building houses one of Europe’s great civic art collections. Since the refurbishment in 2003-2006 the museum has been the most popular free to enter visitor attraction in Scotland and the most visited museum in Britain outside of London. Founded in the West End of the city in 1901 as the Palace of Fine Arts it was built in a Spanish baroque style using local red sandstone. The interior of the central hall is breathtaking and is capped by a massive pipe organ. Magnificent paintings are housed there including Dali’s Christ of Saint John of the Cross. The artist himself negotiated with the curator for the display of the masterpiece.
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| 2. House For An Art Lover |
House For An Art Lover is an unusual house which is well worth a visit. The building is based on a design made by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret but was not built until 1989. It opened to the public seven years later and houses an art gallery. Originally built for a German competition for ‘An Art Lover’s House’ it failed to be completed in time but was nonetheless acknowledged for its design by the organisers. The original designs for each room are displayed there so visitors can compare the actual construction with the original intended one.
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| 3. Loch Lomond |
A short and very inexpensive train ride takes you to the shores of Loch Lomond, one of Scotland’s most famous lochs idealised in the song’ Bonnie, Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond’. From the station it’s possible to take a trip around the Loch, which is Britain’s largest freshwater lake. The boat trip gives excellent views of the Trossachs and Ben Lomond, the most southerly of Scotland’s Munro peaks. The loch was voted sixth in Britain’s Seven Natural Wonders in a Radio Times poll in 2005.
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| 4. Burrell Collection |
Originally the collection on display was given on the condition that it be housed no closer than 16 miles from the centre of the city so as to avoid damage from industrial pollution. The trustees tried for years to find suitable premises but found none. Then in 1947 the Pollok Estate was gifted to the city and the trustees decided that as the building was suitable they would ignore the distance stipulation and house the collection there only three miles from the city centre. Thankfully, no harm has come to the collection. The collection comprises medieval art, Islamic art and Impressionist work from Degas and Cezanne, all collected by the industrialist Sir William Burrell.
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| 5. David Livingstone Museum |
Found in an old mill in Blantyre, about eight miles from Glasgow City Centre, this was the childhood home of the Livingstone family along with 23 other families. The building is now owned by the National Trust For Scotland and houses the museum dedicated to celebrating the life and work of Britain’s greatest explorer and missionary. The building houses a collection of artefacts owned by Livingstone together with many African artefacts he collected on his travels. His colourful life is mapped out across the exhibits and the whole museum is an excellent insight in the man and what drove him.
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| 6. Royal Troon Golf Club |
On a point scoring par with having played at St Andrews, Royal Troon Golf Club is an Open Championship course having hosted the championships eight times over the years. It is home to the shortest and longest holes in the entire list of Open courses. Originally founded in 1878 it only had five holes but they have expanded today to the full championship eighteen holes known as ‘The Old Course’
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| 7. Curry Capital of UK |
You may think that Birmingham or Bradford might have earned this title but Glasgow is officially recognised as the curry capital of the UK because of the large numbers of Indian restaurants in the city, higher per capita than anywhere else in the country. The reason given for this is the large number of Bangladeshi immigrants who moved here to work in Glasgow’s factories in the fifties and sixties. Missing their traditional food they set up restaurants across the city, many of which today are highly popular establishments.
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| 8. People’s Palace and Winter Gardens |
Opened in 1898 the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens were gifted by the Earl of Rosebery to the poor people of Glasgow to help those suffering in the dirt and pollution of the city’s slums to visit somewhere healthy and pleasant where they could sit in clean air and talk to friends. The building housed reading and recreation rooms, a museum and an art gallery to stimulate the minds of the poor. Over the years its use waned and it was turned into a museum celebrating the lives of Glasgow’s poor. For an insight into how people lived and what they spent their time doing, the People’s Palace is a fascinating venue.
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| 9. Gallery Of Modern Art |
At one point the building that houses the Gallery of Modern Art was the Royal Exchange but has had a variety of uses over the years. It is currently home to modern art exhibitions and facilities for the less well off in Glasgow to have access to the internet and a lending library. It is most famous for its statue of the Duke of Wellington outside the museum which invariably sports a traffic cone. The novelty of this demonstration has been picked up commercially over the years and the Duke now regularly wears different designs of traffic cone!
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| 10. Scotland Street School Museum |
Scotland Street School Museum is a museum showcasing school education in Scotland over the centuries. It has a number of classroom displays set up in the manner of schools over the years and hosts events for schools to participate in role play classrooms from another time. The building is also worth a mention having been designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and built between 1903 and 1906 . Today the building is one of Glasgow's foremost architectural attractions having been based on the design of Rowallan castle in Ayrshire and Falkland Palace.. The school was originally built for an intake of 1,250 but due to urban decay in the area the role dropped to under a hundred and was closed in 1979.
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