Beechwood Lodge - Fun Days Out

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.

Away from the rides, there's plenty more to fill a day. Amazonia is a temperature-controlled tropical house with monkeys, parrots, snakes, frogs and butterflies. Devil's Island is an 18-hole mini golf course played over water and in caves. Cosmic Bowl is Scotland's first glow-in-the-dark ten-pin bowling alley, Krazy Congo is a large indoor soft play area, and the Gamezone is an arcade with over 150 games. There's a bistro, a bar and restaurants on site. Families with younger children and groups who like a mix of rides and games are the best fit.

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.

Highlights include Salvador Dalí's Christ of St John of the Cross, Sir Roger the Asian elephant and paintings by the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists. The grand Centre Hall has a Lewis and Co organ, with free recitals given daily. There are tours and trails to follow, a floor plan to download, and a table-service café and a coffee shop for a break. It has a family-friendly atmosphere, and Glasgow Life calls it a must-see if you only have one day in the city.

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.

The Hunterian Museum itself is in the university's neo-Gothic main building. Its displays cover William Hunter and his collections, Roman Scotland (especially the Antonine Wall), geology, ethnography, ancient Egypt, scientific instruments and coins and medals. The nearby Hunterian Art Gallery has major collections of work by James McNeill Whistler and most of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's watercolours, plus an outdoor sculpture garden. The Mackintosh House and the Zoology Museum are also part of the complex, so you can pick the parts that interest you.

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.

Original portfolio designs were displayed in each room so you can compare them with the finished interiors. The house is a prominent example of Art Nouveau, the precursor of the Modern Style, and Mackintosh's blend of traditional Victorian ideas with modern ones runs through the building. It is both a visitor attraction and a venue for exhibitions and other events, run by a charity that aims to stimulate public interest in art, design and architecture.

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.

Highlights include a planetarium with a 15-metre fulldome projection, a Science Show Theatre, and BodyWorks, an exhibition on health and wellbeing with 115 interactive exhibits. Powering the Future looks at the energy behind modern life and how to live sustainably. The Big Explorer is aimed at young children. There is also an IMAX cinema, the first in Scotland, which can show 3D films. The ground floor has cafes, a gift shop and a cloakroom.

It suits families with children of different ages, and anyone curious about how things work.

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.

The highlight of a visit is reaching the top of White Tower Crag for the views across Strathclyde and beyond. On the way you pass the artillery fortifications, some of Scotland's finest examples of early 18th-century military architecture. In the Governor's House, the Rock of Ages exhibition shows artefacts found at the castle, including part of a 1,000-year-old Viking sword. It suits history fans, families with curious children and anyone who likes a good view.

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.

The building itself is part of the appeal. Its glazed courtyard and large windows bring in natural light and look out over Pollok Country Park, and some pieces, such as Romanesque doorways, are built into the structure. The museum was Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2023 and won Best Large Museum in the Family Friendly Museum Award 2025. It runs family trails, talks and creative sessions, and has food and drink on site, so it works well for families and for anyone who likes to combine a gallery with a walk in the park.

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.

What sets it apart is triple distillation, which is unusual for a Scottish distillery. A third still, the Intermediate Still, is used before the final spirit is made, and the whisky is unpeated. The website describes the result as smooth, fresh and fruity. Maturation is mainly in ex-bourbon barrels and ex-sherry butts.

There is also a bar on site. A bomb crater behind the distillery, left from the Clydebank Blitz, now serves as a cooling water pond, which makes a nice bit of local history for visitors interested in the area's past.

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.