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Glasgow's Botanics – the Kibble Palace and the Glasshouses

A few hours, from Hillhead Subway and back.

Directions

The route

Glasgow Botanic Gardens sit at the top of Byres Road in the West End, and the one everybody comes for is the Kibble Palace, a white dome of iron and glass full of tree ferns and marble statues.

It makes a free, unhurried half day, with a café just across the road. Karen Harvey of Hoos, on Great Western Road, recommends the gardens, and her pick for food is Cottonrake Cafe, next door to her shop.

Before you go

  1. Book accommodation nearby

    If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.

    The nearest of ours is Moment Blythswood Street, a mile away. Sleeps 2.

The day

Glasgow

A slow morning in Glasgow's West End, under the iron and glass of the Kibble Palace and among the glasshouses around it. Start with breakfast at Cottonrake Cafe, just across Great Western Road, before the glasshouses open.

About four and a half hours

  1. Glasgow Botanic Gardens

    Glasgow Botanic Gardens

    An attraction

    The gardens are free, and the nearest station on the Subway (Glasgow's underground) is Hillhead, 7 minutes' walk from the gate. Start in the Kibble Palace, brought by barge from Loch Long and opened here in 1873, where tree ferns grow among marble statues. Stroll on to the orchids and cacti of the Main Range glasshouses. Around Halloween GlasGLOW, a ticketed after-dark show, takes over the main gardens for many weeks, so check the Friends of Glasgow Botanic Gardens' website first. For lunch, Cottonrake Cafe is 4 minutes back across Great Western Road, or there's soup at Naked Soup on Kersland Street.

    More about Glasgow Botanic Gardens

If it rains

The Kibble Palace and the Main Range are under glass, so a wet morning changes little. Only the few minutes across Great Western Road to eat are open to the sky.

Glasgow Botanic Gardens