4 Best Sights in Finnieston, Glasgow

Designed by Zaha Hadid to celebrate the area's industrial heritage, this huge metal structure with curving walls echoes the covered yards where ships were built on the Clyde. Glasgow's shipbuilding history is remembered with a world-famous collection of ship models. Locomotives built at the nearby St. Rollox yards are also on display, as are cars from every age and many countries. You can wander down Main Street, circa 1930, without leaving the building: the pawnbroker, funeral parlor, and Italian restaurant are all frozen in time. Relax with a coffee in the café, wander out onto the expansive riverside walk, or board the Tall Ship that is moored permanently behind the museum. Take Bus 100 from the City Centre, or walk from Partick subway station.

Built in 1896, this fine tall sailing ship now sits on the River Clyde immediately behind the Riverside Museum. The Glenlee once belonged to the Spanish Navy (under a different name), but carried cargo all over the world in her day. She returned to Glasgow and the River Clyde in 1993, and now forms part of the museum. You can wander throughout this surprisingly large cargo ship with or without an audio guide, peer into cabins and holds, and stand on the forecastle as you gaze down the river (but bring your own binoculars). Bus 100 from George Square brings you here, or you can walk from the Partick subway station in 10 minutes.

Fun and engaging, this museum for children and adults alike has three floors packed with games, experiments, and hands-on machines from pendulums to small-scale whirlpools, soundscapes to optical illusions. Its space-age home on the south side of the Clyde has a whole wall of glass looking out onto the river. The BodyWorks exhibition explores every aspect of our physical selves—you can even try and reconstruct a brain. There are daily events and science shows, a lovely play area for under-sevens, a planetarium, an IMAX theater, and the spectacular Glasgow Tower, 400 feet high, where you can survey the whole city from the river to the surrounding hills. All carry an additional charge. Always inquire whether the tower is open—even moderate winds will close it down. Admission is expensive, but the tower and planetarium cost less if you buy all the tickets at the same time.

The largest public reference library in Europe houses more than a million items, including what is claimed to be the world's largest collection about Robert Burns. The Mitchell also houses the remarkable private collection of outstanding puppeteer John Blundell. Minerva, goddess of wisdom, looks down from the library's dome, encouraging the library's users and frowning at the drivers thundering along the nearby motorway. This is a genuinely public library with open access to all its materials, nearly 100 computers for public use, and a comfortable on-site café. A bust in the entrance hall commemorates the library's founder, Stephen Mitchell, who died in 1874. The Aye Write Literature Festival takes place here every March, as do many other events celebrating Glasgow's history.