Beechwood Lodge

M&D's is an amusement park in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, bordering Strathclyde Park. It has two roller coasters, including Runaway Mine Train and the children's Big Apple, plus thrill rides such as Air Raid and a pirate ship, and Moby's Revenge, a three-lane dinghy water slide. Younger children have their own junior rides, including trampolines.

Tip: Check the park's website for opening times before you go, as hours differ between attractions.

Kelvingrove is a major art gallery and museum in Glasgow's West End, set in Kelvingrove Park. The Spanish Baroque building opened in 1901, and its 22 galleries display over 8,000 objects. The collections range from natural history, Egyptian antiquities and armour to Scottish history, design and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, plus one of Europe's great civic art collections.

Tip: Download the floor plan or the free digital guide before you go, to pick out the must-see objects first.

The Hunterian is the oldest public museum in Scotland, run by the University of Glasgow on its main campus in the West End. It is a group of venues rather than a single building, and holds over a million items, from meteorites to mummies and Mackintosh.

Tip: The venues are spread across the campus and beyond, so check the Hunterian's website for each venue's opening times and any temporary closures before you go.

House for an Art Lover is an arts and cultural centre in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. It was built between 1989 and 1996 from a design that Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret MacDonald, produced in 1901 for a German magazine competition. The house in that competition was never built, so this is a later interpretation of their drawings, realised with contributions from many contemporary artists.

Glasgow Science Centre sits on the south bank of the River Clyde and is one of Scotland's most popular paid-for visitor attractions. The main building, the Science Mall, has three floors and over 250 interactive exhibits that you can use and play with, rather than just look at.

Tip: Arriving by car, take Junction 24 off the M8 and follow the brown tourist signs. The Exhibition Centre train station is a 12-15 minute walk away.

Dumbarton Castle clings to Dumbarton Rock, a volcanic plug rising almost vertical where the River Leven meets the River Clyde. It was once the heart of an ancient kingdom covering the area now known as Strathclyde, and its recorded history goes back 1,500 years, from the Dark Ages through to the Second World War.

Tip: Book your visit online in advance; Historic Scotland members and Explorer Pass holders can also get in using their pass.

The Burrell Collection is a museum in Glasgow that houses the art collection of Sir William Burrell, a shipping magnate, and his wife Constance, Lady Burrell. It spans 6,000 years of art and history, with highlights including Rodin's The Thinker, Rembrandt's Self Portrait, a Degas portrait, a Ming Dynasty meiping vase and a tapestry of a falcon fighting a heron.

Tip: Pick up the museum's top 30 objects list and head for those first, then explore Pollok Country Park next door.

Auchentoshan is a Lowland single malt Scotch whisky distillery on the edge of Clydebank, at the foot of the Kilpatrick Hills near the Erskine Bridge. The distillery was built in 1823 and rebuilt completely in 1969. It has a visitor centre, completed in 2005, and offers behind-the-scenes tours.

Tip: Tours can be booked through the distillery's website, and it's worth checking its current opening days and what the tour covers before you set off.