Glasgow is unusually well set up for a wet afternoon. Most of the big museums here are free, which is not true of many cities this size, and several of them are genuinely built for children rather than tolerating them.
This is the working list. Where something is closed, we have said so, because driving across the city to a locked door is the worst possible version of a rainy day.
The quick answer, by age
| Age | First choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Under 3 | Soft play | Museums are looking, not doing. A toddler wants to climb |
| 3 to 5 | Soft play or Riverside Museum | Riverside lets them walk on and into things |
| 5 to 8 | Kelvingrove or Glasgow Science Centre | Enough to touch to hold a full morning |
| 8 to 12 | Glasgow Science Centre | Three floors, and the planetarium is a real event |
| Mixed ages | Riverside Museum with the Tall Ship | Free, indoors, and the ship reads as an adventure to everyone |
The free ones, and they are the good ones
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, West End. Free. The Spitfire hanging from the ceiling, the elephant, the natural history hall and the organ recitals do most of the work. Two to three hours with a five to eight year old, less with a toddler, and there is a cafe when the enthusiasm runs out. Kelvingrove Park is right outside if the rain gives up.
Riverside Museum, Clyde waterfront. Free. Around 90 interactive displays, vintage vehicles, a recreated street, and trams and locomotives children can get close to. The Tall Ship Glenlee is moored alongside and is also free: decks, a cargo hold and steep companionways. This is the best free option in the city for a mixed age group.
The Burrell Collection, inside Pollok Country Park on the Southside. Free. Art and artefacts across thousands of years in a building that is a pleasure to be in. Better for eight and over than for a three year old, and it has the advantage of being ten minutes from Silverburn.
Scotland Street School Museum, Southside. Free. Reconstructed classrooms from different decades in a Charles Rennie Mackintosh building. Children find the Victorian classroom genuinely unsettling, in a good way, and it is one of the few museums that gets more interesting the more you explain it.
Gallery of Modern Art, Royal Exchange Square. Free, city centre, and small enough to do in an hour between other things. There is a children’s library downstairs.
The Hunterian, at the University of Glasgow. Free. Skeletons, meteorites and medical oddities, which is exactly the register a nine year old enjoys.
St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, Castle Street. Free, with a Zen garden outside and Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis next door for when the rain eases.
Worth paying for
Glasgow Science Centre, on the south bank of the Clyde. Three floors of interactive exhibits, a planetarium and an IMAX cinema, and it is the one paid attraction on this list that reliably fills a whole day with a seven to twelve year old. Tickets are sold online and prices change, so check before you go and book ahead in school holidays.
Cinemas, swimming pools and climbing centres are the other paid options, and all three are more about burning energy than about the weather. Bellahouston and Tollcross both have pools within a leisure centre.
Closed right now, so do not drive there
The People’s Palace and Winter Gardens on Glasgow Green is closed for refurbishment and is not expected to reopen until 2027. It appears on almost every rainy day list for this city, including older versions of this one, and it will keep appearing for another couple of years. Glasgow Green itself is open, so the playground and the riverside paths still work on a dry day.
Anything else you find on a list more than a year old is worth a thirty second check on the venue’s own site. Opening days shift, and half of these places close one weekday a week.
Soft play, and what a session at Fun Street costs
Museums ask children to look. Soft play asks them to move, which after two days indoors is usually the thing that is actually needed.
Fun Street is on the upper level at Silverburn, Barrhead Road, G53 6AG, with free parking at the centre. We are Scotland’s only fully air conditioned, climate controlled indoor soft play, which matters more in a humid August than in a wet November but is the reason nobody leaves overheated. Sessions run an hour and a half and we are open every day from 10am to 6pm, for ages 0 to 12.
| Ticket | Weekday | Weekend |
|---|---|---|
| Child, 3 to 12 | £10.99 | £15.99 |
| Toddler, 13 to 35 months | £9.99 | £14.99 |
| Infant, 6 to 12 months | £5.99 | £7.99 |
| Baby, under 6 months | £1.99 | £2.99 |
| Adult, 13 and over | £1.99 | £2.99 |
Inside there are storybook themed zones, separate areas for the smallest children, roleplay playhouses and a multi level frame with slides. Erina’s Kitchen is our own cafe, so lunch does not mean leaving. There are scent diffusers and the air conditioning keeps the noise and the heat down, which is part of why the centre works for children who find busy places difficult: our ASN friendly guide explains that properly.
Under threes, where most of this list falls down
A two year old in a museum lasts about forty minutes, and thirty of those are spent being told not to touch things. That is not a criticism of the museums, it is a mismatch.
What works at that age is somewhere they are allowed to climb on everything in sight, which means soft play, a library rhyme time session, or a swimming pool with a shallow area. Riverside Museum is the exception among the museums, because a good deal of it is at toddler height and the vehicles are approachable.
Under three, pick somewhere they are allowed to touch things. Everything else is an hour of saying no.
Our guides to soft play for babies and toddlers and to what the toddler zones are like cover the very small end in more detail. If the sun does come out, the best play parks in Glasgow are on a separate page.
Questions parents ask us
What indoor activities are there in Glasgow for kids?
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Riverside Museum and the Tall Ship, the Burrell Collection, Scotland Street School Museum, GoMA, the Hunterian and St Mungo Museum are all free. Glasgow Science Centre is paid and is the best full day option for older children. Soft play is the answer for under fives, and Fun Street at Silverburn is open every day from 10am to 6pm.
What is free to do indoors in Glasgow with children?
Most of the major museums. Kelvingrove, Riverside, the Tall Ship Glenlee, the Burrell Collection, Scotland Street School Museum, the Gallery of Modern Art, the Hunterian and St Mungo Museum all have free entry. Libraries run free rhyme time and story sessions for the under fives, which are worth knowing about in a wet week.
Is the People’s Palace open?
No. The People’s Palace and Winter Gardens on Glasgow Green is closed for refurbishment and is not expected to reopen until 2027. Glasgow Green and its playground are still open.
What is there to do in Glasgow with a toddler when it rains?
Soft play, a library rhyme time, or the Riverside Museum, which is the one large museum where a toddler can get close to most of what is on show. Fun Street has separate areas for babies and toddlers, and a toddler ticket is £9.99 on a weekday and £14.99 at the weekend.
How long does a soft play session last at Fun Street?
An hour and a half. That is long enough for a child to properly tire and short enough that they leave still enjoying it. We are open every day from 10am to 6pm and booking ahead is sensible in the school holidays and at the weekend.
Is there anywhere indoors near Silverburn?
Fun Street is on the upper level at Silverburn itself, with free parking at the centre. The Burrell Collection in Pollok Country Park is about ten minutes away and is free. Scotland Street School Museum is a short drive north.
What should I take for a day indoors with kids in Glasgow?
Socks, because every soft play in the country requires them and buying a pair at the door is a small tax on the forgetful. A change of top for anyone who eats standing up. Something to carry wet coats in, since museum cloakrooms are not always staffed.
