Crookston Castle

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingNo car park

Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.

Parking details

Historic Scotland names no car park or parking; its directions are off Brockburn Road, south-west of the city centre, leaving the M8 at junction 26. Reviewers park on the street beside the castle and walk two minutes up the drive past the entrance cottage. Crookston railway station is about a kilometre north.

Driving pin: Historic Scotland's own pin on the castle, matching the Google listing at 170 Brockburn Road. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only.

About

Crookston Castle is the only surviving medieval castle in the City of Glasgow. It stands on a hilltop within a deep ring of bank and ditch dug in the 1100s, and the stone castle was built around 1400 by the Stewarts of Darnley to a plan near-unique in Scotland: a central tower with a square tower at each corner, public rooms in the middle and private lodgings in the towers. When the Stewart earls of Lennox rose against James IV in 1489 the royal gun train, perhaps with Mons Meg among it, was hauled from Edinburgh to Crookston, and the two western towers may have fallen then; only the north-east tower survives intact, and it served as an aircraft watch post in the Clydeside blitz. Visitors climb it by steep iron ladders to the roof for a sweeping view over the city, which reviewers call the highlight and not for the faint-hearted; the castle is free and most people park on the street nearby.

ClosedPick a day for times and prices

The castle will be closed from Monday 19 to Sunday 25 October.

Until 31 Mar: Mon, Tue, Wed, Sat, Sun 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:30
From 1 Apr: Daily 09:30–17:30, last entry 17:00

Closed 24–25 Oct

Today, Friday 23 October

Crookston CastleClosed

The castle will be closed from Monday 19 to Sunday 25 October.

Opening times may change at short notice.

1 April to 30 September daily 9.30am to 5.30pm; 1 October to 31 March Saturday to Wednesday 10am to 4pm, closed Thursdays and Fridays; last entry 30 minutes before closing. Notice on 20 October 2026: the castle is closed from Monday 19 to Sunday 25 October, no reason given; it reopens Monday 26 October. The castle is locked outside its hours; the hilltop is ringed by railings along the ditch.

The north-east tower is climbed by very steep iron ladders and open stairs to a roof platform, windy at the top; disabled access is poor. Information boards around the castle; no toilets, cafe or shop.

Photo: The ruined north-east tower of Crookston Castle on its hilltop among trees, seen across the meadow below the ditch railings. Richard Sutcliffe, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crookston_Castle_(geograph_4510726).jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.