Glasgow's West End – Cloisters, Kelvingrove and the Botanics
A day on foot, from Hillhead Subway and back.
The route
Glasgow's West End is the city at its leafiest: sandstone terraces, a university that looks like a cathedral on its hill, a great park and the wooded River Kelvin running through the middle of it all.
This day walks it in one loop from Hillhead Subway and back. The morning is on Gilmorehill, in the university's cloisters, the Hunterian Museum and the Mackintosh House, where the rooms Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald made for themselves have been put back together. Then it's down the hill to the city's great red museum for lunch and the organ at one, and out through Kelvingrove Park to the river. The afternoon follows the Kelvin upstream to the Botanic Gardens and the Kibble Palace, and the day ends on Byres Road and cobbled Ashton Lane for dinner. It's about 3.5 miles on foot, with a climb up to the university first thing.
Before you go
Book a bed near the West End
Stay near the West End and the day starts and ends a short walk from your door; from a bed in the city centre, Hillhead is about 7 minutes from Buchanan Street on the Subway. From 25 January 2027 Glasgow adds a visitor levy of 5% to every night of a paid stay.
The nearest of ours is Moment Blythswood Street, a mile away. Sleeps 2.
The day
West End
A day on foot through Glasgow's West End, from Hillhead Subway at about 9.45am to the university's Gothic cloisters and Mackintosh's own rooms on Gilmorehill. At one the organ plays in Kelvingrove's great red museum, and in the afternoon the River Kelvin leads upstream to the Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens. The evening ends under the lights of Ashton Lane.
University of Glasgow
An attraction
It's a 10-minute walk up from Hillhead Subway, which has escalators and stairs but no lift, to the University of Glasgow's main building, George Gilbert Scott's Gothic design for its move to this hill in 1870. Give half an hour to the cloisters beneath the Bute Hall and the Lion and Unicorn Staircase, carried here from the old college on the High Street. Then the Hunterian Museum, free from 10am and shut on Mondays: half an hour takes in the Roman stones of the Antonine Wall and Lord Kelvin's instruments.
2 min on foot
The Mackintosh House
Cross University Avenue, a 2-minute walk, to the Hunterian Art Gallery on Hillhead Street, where a front door hangs high in the concrete wall. It came from 78 Southpark Avenue, where Charles and Margaret Mackintosh lived from 1906 to 1914. When the house was pulled down in the 1960s, the university rebuilt its main rooms here, about a hundred metres away. It shuts on Mondays. Tickets are £12 at the desk, under-18s free. Give it 45 minutes: its four floors are 62 steps, with no lift.
12 min on foot
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
An attraction
It's a 12-minute walk back past the university and down the hill to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, a red sandstone palace built for the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901, and free. Have lunch in the KG Café on the lower floor, then be in the Centre Hall by 1pm, when the great organ plays for half an hour. After it, find Sir Roger the elephant, the Spitfire in the West Court, and the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists upstairs. Leave at about 2pm for the park.
About 7 min on foot
Kelvingrove Park
An attraction
Walk out through the park and over the river, 7 minutes, to the Stewart Memorial Fountain, a riot of Gothic stone and bronze whether or not the water is on. It was put up in 1872 for the Lord Provost who brought the city its water from Loch Katrine. Kelvingrove Park was laid out in 1852 on the slopes below the university. Above you on Woodlands Hill are the curved terraces of Park Circus and the Trinity towers. Give it an hour, then take the river path north.
20 min on foot
The Kelvin Walkway
Follow the path beside the River Kelvin upstream from the park, under the Great Western Road bridge at Kelvinbridge, where Inn Deep's tables sit by the water. It's about a 20-minute walk to the ruins of the North Woodside Flint Mill, where flint was once ground for Glasgow's potteries. Sections of the path close while diseased ash trees are felled. If it's fenced off, leave the park at Eldon Street and take Gibson Street and Bank Street up to Great Western Road, then along it to the Botanics' gate.
8 min on foot
Glasgow Botanic Gardens
An attraction
Glasgow Botanic Gardens are an 8-minute walk on up the river, over a humpbacked bridge and up the drive. Go straight to the Kibble Palace, a great white dome of iron and glass where tree ferns from New Zealand and Australia grow among marble statues. Then carry on through the Main Range, a long run of glasshouses full of orchids and tropical plants. It's all free, and the glasshouses are open until 6pm from April to September.
12 min on foot
Ashton Lane
An attraction
Leave by the main gate on Great Western Road, with Òran Mór's old church spire on the corner, and it's a 12-minute walk down Byres Road, the West End's high street, to Ashton Lane. The lane is cobbled and strung with lights, and it comes alive in the evening. The Ubiquitous Chip has fed the West End since 1971, under murals by Alasdair Gray, and it's worth booking for dinner. Hillhead Subway is at the foot of the lane, with escalators but no lift, for the ride home.
If it rains
The heart of this day is already under a roof: the Hunterian Museum, the Mackintosh House and Kelvingrove, where there is plenty to fill a longer stay. In heavy rain, leave the park and the Kelvin Walkway out: from the museum walk up Kelvin Way, along University Avenue and Gibson Street, then up Bank Street to Great Western Road and west along it to the Botanics' main gate, about 30 minutes on pavements, and go straight into the Kibble Palace and the Main Range, both under glass. Give any spare time in the morning to the Hunterian Art Gallery, in the same building as the Mackintosh House, free, with its paintings by James McNeill Whistler.
Worth a detour
- Cresswell Lane
A 3-minute walk on from Ashton Lane, Cresswell Lane runs north behind Byres Road with its small shops and cafés, and De Courcy's Arcade of vintage and second-hand stalls. Go before dinner, while the shops are open.
GlasgowUbiquitous ChipA restaurant
GlasgowBrelA restaurant
GlasgowOld Salty'sA restaurant
GlasgowThe ParlourA restaurant
GlasgowKember & JonesA café
GlasgowTantrum DoughnutsA café
GlasgowGloriosaA restaurant
GlasgowBlack Pine Coffee CoA café
GlasgowÒran MórA restaurant
GlasgowNic's NYC DeliA café
GlasgowCail BruichA restaurant
GlasgowPapercupA caféMake it a weekend
More days out in Glasgow.
Photographs by Andrew via Google; Stephen Craven (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons