Glasgow's Art Treasure Featuring the Burrell Collection

Departing: March 2027 - October 2027

There’s still time to discover in 2026. Selected departures are still available – simply call 1-800-759-7715 to find out more.

Reopened in 2022 following an ambitious refurbishment, Glasgow’s Burrell Collection offers a world-class journey through art and history, with treasures spanning 5,000-year-old Chinese porcelain, French masterpieces by artists including Manet, Cézanne and Degas, and medieval artefacts such as stained glass, armour and tapestries.

This break also reveals Glasgow’s wider artistic heritage, from the renowned collections of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and Scotland’s oldest public museum, the Hunterian, to the Gallery of Modern Art. Discover the architectural elegance of Holmwood House, one of Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s finest creations, and conclude with a visit to House for an Art Lover, inspired by an original 1901 design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Included

Explore the Burrell Collection & Gallery of Modern Art, with entrance fees included
All other visits as outlined in the itinerary
Professional Tour Manager
3 nights at the Ibis Styles, Glasgow Central
3 breakfasts & 2 dinners
Private air-conditioned coach travel

Highlights

Explore the refurbished Burrell Collection
Visit Scotland’s oldest public museum
Discover one delight after another at Kelvingrove
See world-class art (and a Glasgow icon) at the Gallery of Modern Art
Experience Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s design brought to life at the House for an Art Lover

Alastair Walker

A native of Inverness his knowledge of Scotland is wide ranging, from the Northern Isles and the Hebrides to Perthshire, Galloway and the Borders. His specialist subjects include Scottish military history and the railways of Scotland past and present.

Clive Warsop

An Environmental Archaeologist. He lectured and tutored at the University of Edinburgh for 10 years on the Archaeology of Scotland and aspects of European Archaeology and has supervised and directed excavations in Scotland and France.

Tour Itinerary

We depart from our designated pick-up points and travel to Glasgow, where we begin with a visit to the Gallery of Modern Art, housed in an impressive neoclassical building in Royal Exchange Square. It was originally built in 1778 as the townhouse of a wealthy merchant, later becoming first a bank and then the Royal Exchange. Since 1996, it has been home to the Gallery of Modern Art, which borrows, collects and displays contemporary artworks from around the world in an ever-changing series of exhibits across its four galleries. Outside the museum sits one of Glasgow’s iconic landmarks, the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, upon whose head a traffic cone is invariably placed and there's a photo opportunity here before we depart for our hotel, where dinner is served in the evening.

Meals: Dinner

Accommodation: Ibis, Glasgow City Centre

After breakfast, we return to Glasgow and head for the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which first opened its doors to the public in May 1901 when it formed a major part of the Glasgow International Exhibition. Since then, it has established itself as one of the finest civic collections in Europe. French, Italian and Dutch art feature alongside exhibits as diverse as ancient Egypt, dinosaurs and Scotland’s wildlife. There is an opportunity for lunch on arrival here.

In the afternoon, we travel the short distance to the Hunterian Museum, part of the University of Glasgow, which was founded in 1807, making it Scotland's oldest public museum, home to one of the largest collections outside the National Museums along with temporary displays. You may be interested in visiting the Mackintosh Collection, numbering around 1,000 items, including architectural, furniture and interior designs, textile designs, flower drawings and watercolours. Entrance to the Macintosh House is optional (entrance charge is approximately £8 adult, £6 senior citizen) and subject to availability since entrance is restricted to 12 guests at a time and cannot be pre-booked. We return to our hotel later in the afternoon.

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Accommodation: Ibis, Glasgow City Centre

Day 2 Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

This morning. we head for the south side of Glasgow and visit the renovated Burrell Collection. This ambitious refurbishment allows visitors, for the first time, to explore all three floors in the building, set out as galleries, visible stores and special exhibition spaces. When Sir William Burrell and his wife, Lady Constance, gifted his collection of over 9,000 works of art to Glasgow, the city acquired one of the greatest collections created by one person. William Burrell had been an art collector since his teens, and the collection is made up of a vast array of works of all periods from all over the world. Wander round important collections of medieval art, tapestries, alabasters, stained glass and English oak furniture, European paintings including works by Degas and Cézanne, an important collection of Islamic art and modern sculpture including works by Epstein and Rodin.

Our afternoon visit takes us to Holmwood House, the finest and most elaborate residential villa designed by Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson. It is also rare to retain much of its original interior decor. Holmwood was constructed for James Couper, a paper manufacturer, in 1857-1858. Couper owned the Millholm paper mill in the valley of the White Water of Cart immediately below the villa. The polychromatic decoration was designed by Thomson and executed by Campbell Tait Bowie. The most notable survival is in the dining room, which has a frieze of panels enlarged from John Flaxman's illustrations of Homer's Iliad. The sculpture on the hall chimneypiece was by George Mossman.

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Accommodation: Ibis, Glasgow City Centre

Returning to Glasgow once more, our final visit is to the House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park. The origins of this unique building lie in drawings prepared by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1901 as his entry to a competition to design a ‘Haus Eines Kunstfreundes’ or ‘Art Lovers House’, set by German design magazine Zeitschrift Fur Innendekoration. The entry, though highly commended, was unsuccessful and for more than 80 years, Mackintosh’s concept remained an unrealised design on paper, until Graham Roxburgh, the Consulting Engineer responsible for restoring Mackintosh interiors in nearby Craigie Hall, had the idea to build the House for an Art Lover. After much detective work and various setbacks, Roxburgh’s dream finally became a reality in 1996 when the house opened to the public, and today it offers a remarkable insight into the work of an architect of extraordinary vision and imagination. Following our visit, we return to our original pick-up points.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation

The Ibis Styles Glasgow Central is ideally situated in the heart of Glasgow, offering easy access to the city's vibrant cultural, shopping and entertainment districts. You can expect a restaurant, welcoming lounge area, perfect for relaxing with a drink from the bar, and modern rooms with tea and coffee-making facilities, TV, hairdryer, free Wi-Fi and complimentary toiletries.

Availability & Booking

2027

20th March from $1,185

Call to Book

13th October from $1,185

Call to Book

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