Kelvingrove is Scotland's most visited attraction and one of the great free museums of Europe, housed in a magnificent red sandstone building that opened in 1901. The 22 themed galleries cover everything from Egyptian mummies and Kenyan warrior dress to Dutch masters, French Impressionists, and the complete skeleton of a sperm whale suspended from the ceiling of the main hall. There is also a World War I warplane — a Hawker Sida biplane — hanging from the roof, and a stuffed male lion called Sir Roger who was the symbol of the city for a generation.
The building itself is a destination: ornate Venetian-Spanish Renaissance architecture with a central hall designed for drama, and the famous urban myth that it was built the wrong way round (the rear entrance faces Argyle Street because the main entrance was designed to face the future International Exhibition grounds that were never built in that direction). Free admission; open seven days a week.