The Cloisters
The vaulted undercroft between the two quadrangles, the corner everyone compares to Hogwarts and photographs more than anything else on campus.
An 85-metre tower looks down on the whole of Glasgow, and beneath it stands the second-largest Gothic-revival building in Britain after the Palace of Westminster. Nobody asks you for a penny to wander round it. The University of Glasgow was founded by papal bull in 1451, the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world, and moved in 1870 to Gilmorehill in the West End, where George Gilbert Scott gave it a Main Building that is half castle, half cathedral. The finest view of the whole facade is from Kelvingrove Park at the foot of the hill; start there and climb. What people really come for is the Cloisters, the vaulted undercroft that links the East and West Quadrangles: dark columns, a ceiling of interlacing arches, and an uncanny resemblance to Hogwarts that has made it one of the most photographed corners of the city. On the west side, beside the Memorial Chapel, is the Lion and Unicorn Staircase of 1690, carried stone by stone from the old college on High Street. The grand Bute Hall and the Memorial Chapel with its stained glass are another matter: they open when the university's calendar allows, and may be shut for a graduation or an exam on the day you turn up. Your best chance of seeing inside is the historical tour run by the Students' Representative Council. It leaves at 2pm, Tuesday to Sunday, from the East Undercroft entrance, with an extra 11.30am departure usually added in summer; it lasts about an hour mostly outdoors, and costs £11 per adult, £9 for over-60s and students, £6 for under-14s or £27 for a family of two adults and two children; book ahead in the summer holidays. The tour goes into the Memorial Chapel when possible, but Bute Hall is not promised. Inside the Main Building itself is the Hunterian Museum, Scotland's oldest public museum, free and open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm, closed Mondays along with the Hunterian Art Gallery across the road. Be clear about what this is: a working university, not an attraction with a ticket desk and a marked route. Students stream between the quads, and a courtyard can close without notice for an official occasion. The quadrangles and the paths around the building suit families and pushchairs well, but the direct climb from Kelvingrove is all steps. Hillhead and Kelvinhall subway stations are each five to ten minutes' walk. In the dark winter months come before noon: the light goes before four and the visit is essentially an outdoor one.
The vaulted undercroft between the two quadrangles, the corner everyone compares to Hogwarts and photographs more than anything else on campus.
A 1690 stair carried over from the old High Street college, the oldest piece of a campus that looks ancient all over.
From the park below, the whole facade and tower line up in the shot that appears in every guide to Glasgow.
University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ
If you want the Cloisters, the quads and the Kelvingrove photo, the free wander is entirely enough and costs nothing. The tour earns its price only if you want the best chance of stepping inside the Memorial Chapel and a student guide's stories; with small children on a wet day, stick to the Cloisters and the free Hunterian Museum inside the building.
No. The quadrangles and Cloisters are effectively open at any reasonable hour, but Bute Hall and the Chapel open around the university's own events and close for graduations and exams, and the Hunterian Museum is shut on Mondays.