Opening times: Museum entry times are fixed at 10.00 am, 12.00 pm, and 2.00 pm most days but best to check the website before visiting.
Entry: Adults £10.00, children (0 – 17) and concessions (seniors and students) £6.00, family ticket (2 adults, 2 children) £20.00.
Access: Parking at Hampden.
With Scotland playing in their first FIFA World Cup since 1998 – and having won their opening match against Haiti – there was really only one choice when choosing a brown sign destination this week: the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park, the home of the national team (although it is the stadium rather than the museum that has brown signs). The museum was the first of its kind in the world, contains over 2,000 exhibit items, and charts the Beautiful Game from its 19th century origins to the present day, so let’s push through the turnstiles and have a look.
The current Hampden Park is the third venue to bear that name. The first existed between 1873 and 1884 and is now the site of Hampden Bowling Club. The second opened in October 1884 but was renamed Cathkin Park when it became Third Lanark’s ground in 1903. That club went out of business in 1967, but the remains of its terraces can still be seen within Cathkin Park, now a public park. The third Hampden Park, opened 1903, set a British and European attendance record when 149,547 crammed in to watch Scotland beat England 3 – 1 in 1937. That record still stands. Incredibly, a week later nearly the same number (149,365) attended the Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Aberdeen. Hampden has been redeveloped several times over the years, most recently in the late 1990s, and capacity now stands at 51,866.And yes there is an old turnstile, but I couldn’t see anything informing me whether this once served that purpose at an actual football ground or whether it was just recreated for the museum. The Scottish Football Museum originally existed as a small section of the old Transport Museum and was established as recently as 1994. It moved to Hampden in 2001. This football was used in the very first game played at the third Hampden Park, when Queen’s Park defeated Celtic 1 – 0 on 31 October 1903.Shirt worn by Robert Smyth McColl during an international against England in 1900. Scotland won 4 – 1 with McColl scoring a hat-trick; he kept the ball (pictured) as a souvenir. Despite a career playing for Queen’s Park, Newcastle United, and Rangers, he is probably best remembered today for founding the newsagent chain RS McColl with his brother Tom in 1901.The Glasgow Northeastern Cup. Clubs from the north and east of Glasgow competed between the 1881/82 and 1894/95 seasons. Celtic, Clyde, and Partick Thistle all played for this trophy but most of their fellow competitors – Thistle, Cowlairs, Petershill, Tollcross – never made it out of the Victorian age. The museum is full of facts and figures but it also has a sense of humour too, presenting photo opportunities such as joining these two chancers in trying to get a keek at the first ever international football match, between Scotland and England, in November 1872.Alan Morton of Rangers worethis top while playing for Scotland against England at Villa Park in Birmingham in 1922, one of eleven times he wore the dark blue against the ‘auld enemy’. According to caption accompanying this top, the press south of the border referred to Morton as the ‘Wee Blue Devil’ for his ability to outplay his English opponents. Another Scotland top, this time one worn by the wonderfully named Harry Haddock of Clyde in the Scotland v Hungary match of 10 December 1954. This being the grainy, black and white fifties, the white sleeves were adopted to help those watching on television differentiate between teams. The pink and yellow shirt in a previous picture was so designed because those were the (horse) racing colours of Lord Rosebury, a considerable funder of Scottish football at the time. Sculpture of tenement boys playing footie in the street.
In 1967 Celtic became the first British team to win the European Cup when they defeated Inter Milan at the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon, Portugal. The ball on the left is signed by the Lisbon Lions, as the team was later nicknamed, with the signatures (top to centre) of Bobby Lennox, Tommy Gemmill, and Bobby Murdoch. I can’t make out the signature on the bottom left of the ball. Right: One of nineteen Jimmy Johnstone Fabergé eggs created in 2005 by Sarah Fabergé, great-grand-daughter of Russian Imperial Jeweller Carl Fabergé. The eggs were created not just to honour Johnstone but to support him as he battled motor neurone disease. The proceeds of the £10,000-a-pop eggs went directly to the former Lisbon Lion and Scotland legend. I’ve opted to focus on the figure of Johnstone inside the egg, but the exterior is covered in motifs relating to his life and career.
On 4 June 1977 jubilant Scottish supporters invaded the pitch at Wembley Stadium following their team’s 2 – 1 victory over England. A crossbar was snapped and the turf dug up by fans wanting a souvenir, with one enterprising soul appropriating this penalty spot. That’s impressive enough, but who looks at a penalty spot and thinks, “Let’s preserve this for the next fifty years”?The following year the team took part in the World Cup at Argentina. People of my generation will remember that this was the tournament where we’d “really shake them up, When we win the World Cup”, as the lyrics to Andy Cameron’s novelty hit (number 6 in the UK charts) ‘Ally’s Tartan Army’ had it. Sadly Peru and Iran begged to differ, and we went home after the group stage. ‘Ally’ was Ally MacLeod, Scotland’s manager, incidentally, and the shirt above was worn by Willie Johnstone.
The picture of Ally MacLeod with his head in hands in the dying minutes of the Scotland – Iran game was echoed in living rooms all across the country, but there was one bright moment, Archie Gemmill’s wonder goal in the final game against the Netherlands. Scotland needed to win by three clear goals to qualify for the next round, and were leading 2 – 1 when Gemmill collected the ball outside the Dutch penalty area in the 68th minute. He dribbled past three Dutch defenders and chipped the ball over the goalie into the net. Scotland erupted. It was now 3 – 1, with just one more goal required. Unfortunately the Netherlands scored it three minutes later, and Scotland were out. Gemmill’s goal was voted ‘Goal of the Tournament’, and is now regarded as Scotland’s greatest ever. Hats off the the museum for trying to recreate it with life-size figures but it’s best checking the real thing out on YouTube to truly experience the magic.
Speaking of World Cup songs here’s ‘We Have a Dream’, the Official Scottish World Cup Single for Espana 82. Written by BA Robertson and sung by actor John Gordon Sinclair with the Scottish team providing backing vocals, it went one higher than ‘Ally’s Tartan Army’, peaking at number five. If Scotland’s dream was for the Soviet Union to score after Alan Hansen and Willie Miller bumped into each other while chasing a long ball, then it came true. Kenny Dalglish’s silver cap, awarded for his 100th appearance for his country. This was on 26 March 1986 when the Scots took on Romania at Hampden. The home team won 3 – 0. Ally McCoist’s Golden Boot, presented to the Rangers striker for being Europe’s top scorer in the 1992/93 season, an accolade he also won the previous season. McCoist remains Rangers’ all-time top goalscorer with 355 goals over 581 appearances for the club.
Some blasts from the past!I was never a fan of Blow Football – it involved to too much of the wrong kind of dribbling.
Another blast from the past! The Invacar was a three-wheeled microcar issued free of charge to disabled persons by the UK government between 1946 and the early 1980s. They were once a common sight at football grounds as the owners were allowed to park pitch-side to watch the match. The scheme was eventually scrapped, and surviving cars were banned from British roads for safety reasons in 2003. The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – the Scottish Cup to its pals – is the oldest in association football and the oldest national sporting trophy in the world. It was founded in 1873 and its inaugural winners were Queen’s Park the following year. Queen’s Park went on to win it on ten occasions, the last being in 1893. The current holders at this time of writing are Celtic, having beaten Dunfermline 3 – 1 at Hampden in May 2026. Celtic are the most successful team in the Cup’s history, winning it 43 times and playing in 62 finals.
Destination or Diversion?
Annie and I spent going on two hours at the museum and our interest stretched only to the national team, so those interested in club football will likely spend longer. Either way, it’s a destination.
Note: The museum was pretty much empty when we visited but a member of staff explained that most people visit it as part of a stadium tour, which are well subscribed but currently suspended as Hampden is being used for a series of summer concerts. Prices for the stadium / museum tour can be found here.
A gable end mural of Scott McTominay’s sensational and now iconic goal against Denmark in the game that sent Scotland to the 2026 World Cup. The mural is located on Somerville Drive, just a short walk from Hampden Park. It can in fact be seen from the stadium.
