Glasgow’s Wealth of Free Exhibits : Scotland’s industrial city is known for its multitude of parks and museums.

The name Glasgow, Gaelic for “dear green place,” is well-suited to this city, which claims to have more parks than any other city in Britain. Many of them provide lovely settings for the 35 museums and galleries that the city is also famous for, and which house fascinating historical artifacts and works by some of the world’s leading artists. Budget travelers will be happy to find that many of these facilities are open free of charge.

A good place to start your visit is the Greater Glasgow Tourist Board, in the center of town at 35 St. Vincent Place. Here you can get help with transportation, currency exchange and accommodations.

The tourist office will not arrange beds in the youth hostel, but will give you information on how to get there. Glasgow’s 120-bed International Youth Hostel is in a quiet residential area at 11 Woodlands Terrace, telephone 011-44-332-3004. The building was once a tobacco baron’s home.

More than 10,000 travelers now pass through each year, staying in dormitory rooms and sharing a TV lounge and kitchen for about $12 per person, per night, or $15 for non-members of the International Youth Hostel Federation. Meal service is also available, and there is a 2 a.m. curfew.

The tourist office can arrange cheap accommodations in student residences during the Easter and summer holidays. Thirteen student residences offer accommodations to visitors at rates ranging from about $16.50 to $38.50 per person, per night. The higher-priced rooms include breakfast.

You can arrange accommodations through the Tourist Board (which charges for the service) or at the special visitors reception area at the main campus of the University of Glasgow, telephone 011-44-330-5511.

The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451. You’ll find the main campus in a park-like setting at Gilmorehill. On campus is Scotland’s oldest public museum, the Hunterian Museum, founded in 1807. Admission is free. Inside you’ll find, among other things, various archeological exhibits of Scotland, and ethnographic material from Captain Cook’s voyages.

Across the road is the Hunterian Art Gallery, also free, which houses an important collection of paintings by Whistler and Rembrandt. Attached to the gallery is Mackintosh House, featuring furniture, interiors and designs by the world-famous architect/designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who died in 1928. (Donations are accepted for admission.)

Just a short walk away in Kelvingrove Park is the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It’s considered by many to house Britain’s finest civic collection of British and European paintings, as well as archeology, ethnography and natural history. It’s also free.

Other Glasgow sights with free admission include the Botanic Gardens; People’s Palace Museum, with exhibits related to trades and industry, women’s suffrage, entertainment and sport; City Chambers, with free tours on weekdays, except Thursdays, at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., and the Museum of Transport.

For more information on Glasgow or Scotland before you leave home, contact the British Tourist Authority, 350 S. Figueroa St., Suite 450, Los Angeles 90071, (213) 628-3525.