2 Best Sights in Scotland

A 17th-century bishop of Dunblane, and later an archbishop of Glasgow, Robert Leighton donated his collection of roughly 1,400 books for clergy to use, along with funds to build this library to store them. Today the library---which is no longer a lending library but operates like a museum of books---owns more than 4,500 books, and you can view an assortment of old and interesting maps and books here. Donations are encouraged.

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.