Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
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When we went to Scotland in February half term we added the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to our plans after a few people recommended it to us. And I’m so glad we made the time to visit!
Where is Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum?
The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is in the Yorkhill area of Glasgow. We visited after going to The Riverside Museum and The Tall Ship Glenlee, leaving our car in the car park there are taking a short walk to the Kelvingrove Museum. It’s well signposted, easy to find and free to visit. It also has its own car park but we’d heard that it gets full up quickly.
What is Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum?
The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a major art gallery and museum owned by Glasgow City Council. Dating back to 1901, it’s a popular attraction for not just tourists but locals as well.
The museum consists of 22 different galleries featuring everything from art to animals, Ancient Egypt to Charles Rennie Mackintosh and more. Unlike London museums, where you have history in one museum and art in another, at Kelvingrove you get to see an eclectic mix of treasures all under one utterly beautiful roof – the building is incredible.
I likened the building to a smaller Natural History Museum. With such high ceilings and incredible architecture, you could spend hours just admiring the building without even starting on the exhibits. It’s a true wonder to behold. We were blown away the minute we walked in the doors.
Our time at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
When we started to explore the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum we knew we didn’t have a huge amount of time and so picked up a map and went straight for the main areas that were of interest for us.
Our first stop was Ancient Egypt, walking through Glasgow Stories on the way. It was lovely to see so much local history whilst also learning more about the classic subjects! We loved the Ancient Egypt displays – especially the Sarcophagus of Pa-Ba-Sa, right in the centre of this area.
Ancient Egypt was followed by Creatures of the Past and this was where we started to discover the sheer volume of taxidermy animals on display at Kelvingrove – there are a lot of them! It was great to see so many creatures from different eras and different parts of the world however, not everyone loves seeing dead animals on display so this is something to be aware of.
We walked through the Environment Discovery Centre and Scotland’s Wildlife before getting our first glimpse of the West Court of the museum – and Sir Roger the elephant! What an incredible sight.
From about 1885 until 1897 Sir Roger toured the country with Bostock & Wombwell’s Menagerie, before ending his days the Scottish Zoo. Since then he has been on display in the museum and he really is a sight to see, especially surrounded by so many other incredible exhibits – like the Spitfire LA198 hanging above him!
After exploring the West Court we went in search of a few artworks we wanted to see. Our route took us through Conflict and Consequence and Scotland’s First People before we found our way to Salvador Dalí
– Christ of St John of the Cross. This was incredible to see and obviously a really popular exhibit in the museum.
We also went to see Vincent Van Gogh by Alexander Reid which took us through Scottish Identity in Art and French Art. This gallery had so many fantastic artworks in and plenty of places to sit and simply appreciate them.
There was so much more we could have seen at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum but just didn’t have the time. It’s a really well laid out, well planned museum and gallery with so many great exhibits.
The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum has plenty of toilets, shops and places to grab food or drinks. It’s the perfect attraction, with plenty of places to sit and admire the pieces on display – or just take a load off.
Throughout our visit there were organ recitals taking place in the centre of the museum and this was simply breathtaking. It was so lovely to listen to and the mix of modern and classic music was beautiful. It really added to our visit.
We absolutely loved our time at the museum and although we only spent a couple of hours at the Kelvingrove Museum we are so glad we made the trip – and can’t wait to go back in the future.
You can find out more about the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum over on their website and for reference the address is: Argyle St, Glasgow G3 8AG
