Dowanhill Park

This is my local park, although I confess that I don’t visit it that often. But it’s a nice place on a sunny day and it has a great swings area that is very child-​safe.
Since the old pavilion was converted into a nursery there’s always a lot of child activity in the park, so consequently it is very popular with parents who have small children. It’s a bit too close to Highburgh Road to be very peaceful, but it’s a nice place to sit and get some sun in the summer months.

Great resource for local kids, this park has had a mini makeover recently and is now cleaner and safer than ever.
With plenty of seating areas, it’s a good spot for all on a sunny day, especially as it maintains a semi-​word of mouth feel on account of the close proximity of both Kelvingrove Park and the Botanic Gardens.
This much smaller facility is situated just off Byres Road meaning it’s also ideal for workers in the area on their lunch break.

With nearby parks such as The Botanic Gardens and Kelvingrove park — you’d probably be forgiven for overlooking Dowanhill. If you live in the Hyndland or Byres Road area though, this is a great place to know about. Especially if you have kids to entertain.
Although a lot smaller than the other two parks I’ve mentioned — Dowanhill Park is a great place for sunbathing, a bit of surreptitious ball gaming (because of course ball games are banned), playing on the playpark, taking the dog for a walk or just to sit and watch the world go by.
It’s well proportioned and has plenty of benches and large green areas as well as a proper traditional playpark. In fact, I think I might head off for a bit of a go on the swings…

Up until the age of 16, I think I played here every day after school, spent entire summer holidays finding stuff to do out of nothing and annoyed countless sunbathers with my fly away footballs.
Patches of greenery are such an important addition to a city. Having this park situated between Hillhead, Partick and Hyndland makes it a good central location for families of the community. I would have been lost without it.
In all fairness, I can remember it being a bit dirty and spent many a time coming home from the park dragging dog **** through my mums nice carpet but its cleaned up its act now and remains to be a tidy and friendly place to visit.

How could i ever have missed this place???
Having lived in the area for a while now i was pretty damn sure that i had clocked all the green lazy type places… i was wrong. This delightful little green space is a stones throw from the sometimes hectic Byres Road and an idea oasis of calm.
With fantastic facilities for kids, play parks, lots of green stuff etc, and a good number of seats for the accompanying adults, this really is a gem if you live around here or just fancy escaping the fumes on a summers day.

A perfect park to take kids to!
Not only is the circular landscaping of the park user-​friendly but also very pleasing to the eye. There’s two circles to it — an inner and an outer. The outer is a hilly grass area with benches, and the inner is a well-​equipped and fenced in large kids playground — such a set-​up is perfect for adults to sit back and watch the kids whilst allowing them the independence to run around freely. And because of the fencing, the worry of them running off too far is eliminated. Another bonus is that it’s never as busy as the Kelvingrove or Botanics.
The grassy area is also perfect to let dogs have a nice sniff around — though probably only suitable for smaller dogs.
All in all, it’s a perfect escape from the city buzz on Byres Road, and a great way to entertain the wee-​uns.