Dog Friendly City Guide: Glasgow, Scotland

Glasgow is a city that does its living in public, in its pubs and its parks, and a dog fits into both without fuss. The centre is a tight grid of Victorian sandstone you can cover on foot, the West End climbs up from the River Kelvin through a Victorian park that Historic Environment Scotland rates outstanding, and the Southside holds the city's only country park, a whole estate of woodland and riverside paths. Between them sit bars that have been pouring for two centuries and a beer hall where dogs are welcome until closing time. This guide is built from our own venue and walk data and the hotels we have assessed and ranked in the city, with every rule checked against the page that sets it.

Getting There With a Dog

Glasgow is in Great Britain, so the rules that matter are the British ones, set out on the government's Bring your pet to Great Britain pages. Your dog must be microchipped before its rabies vaccination, and the wait after that first vaccination is at least 21 full days. Coming from an EU country, a pet passport issued in the EU is accepted; coming from the United States, you need a Great Britain pet health certificate. Dogs coming from Northern Ireland need neither document.

The step visitors forget is tapeworm. Unless you are travelling directly from Finland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Malta or Norway, a vet must treat your dog for tapeworm no less than 24 hours and no more than five days before you enter Great Britain, and record it in the passport or certificate, every trip. Our guide to taking your dog abroad puts every step in the order it has to be done. Once you are here, the law asks that every dog in a public place wears a collar with the owner's name and address on it or on a tag, as the Scottish Outdoor Access Code reminds walkers.

Where to Stay

The hotel to know is Kimpton Blythswood Square, ranked B. It sits on the square it is named for, in what the hotel calls historic Georgian architecture, with private gardens outside the doors, the Spa at Blythswood Square inside and iasg as its restaurant. Dogs stay free with no deposit, and the weight limit is a generous 77 lb, so most large dogs are as welcome as small ones; two can share a room. Our assessment found the room set up with a bed, a water bowl and treats, poop bags on hand and toys when they have them. Your dog is welcome in The Salon, the first floor lounge of columns and fireplaces where the hotel serves drinks and afternoon tea, and in the outdoor areas when the weather allows. The concierge will arrange a dog walker or a groomer, suggest walking routes and give you the details of a local emergency vet.

Three more ranked hotels give you a choice of neighbourhood. Moxy Glasgow Merchant City, ranked B, puts you among the bars of the Merchant City with no weight limit at all, dogs welcome in the bar, the restaurant and the lounge, bowls and free treats, and the freedom to leave a settled dog in the room while you go out; the fee is £15 a night. Sandman Signature Glasgow, also ranked B, has no weight limit either, takes two dogs to a room and lays on a dog bed, bowls, free treats and poop bags, with dogs welcome in its bar, restaurant and lounge, for £15 a night. Its own site lists pets allowed in select rooms. Across the river in Pollokshields, Sherbrooke Castle Hotel, ranked C, is a baronial house in red sandstone that has welcomed guests since 1896, set in private gardens. It has no weight limit, puts a dog bed and bowls in the room, lets your dog use the terrace, the lounge and the garden, and allows a dog to be left alone in the room.

Eat and Drink

The city centre's old bars are its best dog friendly rooms. Sloans, off the Argyll Arcade, dates its story to 1797: by its own account it has hosted cockfights and the stagecoach to Edinburgh, become an opulent restaurant under David Sloan, and been revived for this century, and it keeps a hidden courtyard beer garden with lights and heaters for the cooler evenings. On Hope Street, the Pot Still is a family run whisky bar with more than a thousand whiskies, four cask ale lines and proper pies; its history records a wine and spirits merchant on the premises in 1867, and the Murphy family have owned it since 2011. One street east on Renfield Street, the Raven is a sports bar with craft beer and food, and the away match hub for Glasgow Warriors this season, for anyone who wants the rugby with the dog at their feet.

Glasgow brews its own, and two of its breweries take dogs. Drygate, on the street it is named for in the east of the centre, is a brewery with a brasserie and bar. WEST on the Green is the reason to walk out to Glasgow Green: a German style beer hall and brewery in the Templeton Building, with a bar, a restaurant and a beer garden of more than forty tables, one of the biggest in the city. Its own page could not be plainer: the beerhall and beer garden are completely dog friendly, and dogs can stay until closing time. Petra Wetzel, who came from Bavaria to study at the University of Glasgow, opened it in 2006, and every beer is brewed to the German Purity Law of 1516.

Out west in Finnieston, Argyle Street is the city's eating strip. The Finnieston is a seafood restaurant and gin bar with more than sixty gins, in a small blue building that began life as a drovers' tavern around 1800. Further along the strip, Strip Joint is a bar with a record shop of its own, Strip Joint Records, under the same roof.

Walks and Parks

Kelvingrove Park is the West End's great walk. Historic Environment Scotland lists it as an important public park of the mid nineteenth century, with design contributions by Charles Wilson and Sir Joseph Paxton, laid out around the River Kelvin, with the University above it to the north and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to the south west. The river is a wildlife corridor where kingfishers and otters live, so a morning walk along the water is worth taking slowly. Finnieston's bars are at the bottom of the hill when you are done.

East of the Saltmarket, Glasgow Green is by far the oldest of the city's parks, 55 hectares given to the people of Glasgow by Bishop Turnbull in 1450. The council's page tells its history, from Bonnie Prince Charlie reviewing his troops to the suffragettes' meetings, and points out the Doulton Fountain, the paths along the Clyde with their viewing platforms, and the Templeton Building, its façade based on the Doge's Palace in Venice, where WEST now pours its beer. The park is open at all times.

For a whole morning, go south to Pollok Country Park, Glasgow's largest park and the only country park within the city. It was once the Old Pollok Estate, ancestral home of the Maxwell family, and it now holds woodland walks, riverside walks and the Burrell Collection. The park is open at all times and patrolled by its rangers. Its fold of Highland cattle, established by the Maxwells nearly two hundred years ago, grazes the fields along Pollok Avenue, and seeing them is half the reason to come.

Good to Know

Scotland has its own rules on XL Bully dogs: under the Scottish Government's rules it is a criminal offence to keep one without a Certificate of Exemption, and one must be on a lead and muzzled in public; Great Britain does not admit a banned breed without a valid certificate either. At Pollok, the Access Code asks that dogs near farm animals go on a short lead or close at heel, and the paths and gardens around Pollok House have been closed for building work since June 2025. At Kimpton Blythswood Square the dog friendly rooms are the Deluxe Rooms, subject to availability, so say you are bringing a dog when you book; iasg is kept for people and dogs are not left alone in the room. Sandman Signature keeps its tenth floor balcony rooms and suites free of pets, and dogs there are not left alone in the room. At Sherbrooke Castle the bar and restaurant are kept for people, there is a £30 deep clean charge per dog, and a £20 refundable deposit is taken by chip and PIN on a physical card. If you are going on to Edinburgh, our Edinburgh guide picks up where this one ends.