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GLASGOW 's earliest history, like so much else in this surprisingly romantic city, is obscured in a swirl of myth. The city's name is said to derive from the Celtic Glas-cu , which loosely translates as "the dear, green place" - a tag that the tourist board are keen to exploit as an antidote to the sooty images of popular imagination. It is generally agreed that the first settlers arrived in the sixth century to join Christian missionary Kentigern - later to become St Mungo - in his newly founded monastery on the banks of the tiny Molendinar Burn.

William the Lionheart gave the town an official charter in 1175, after which it continued to grow in importance, peaking in the mid-fifteenth century when the university was founded on Kentigern's site - the second in Scotland after St Andrews. This led to the establishment of an archbishopric, and hence city status, in 1492, and, due to its situation on a large, navigable river, Glasgow soon expanded into a major industrial port . The first cargo of tobacco from Virginia offloaded in Glasgow in 1674, and led to a boom in trade with the colonies until American independence. Following the Industrial Revolution and James Watt's innovations in steam power, coal from the abundant seams of Lanarkshire fuelled the ironworks all around the Clyde, worked by the cheap hands of the Highlanders and, later, those fleeing the Irish potato famine of the 1840s.

The Victorian age transformed Glasgow beyond recognition. The population boomed from 77,000 in 1801 to nearly 800,000 at the end of the century, and new tenement blocks swept into the suburbs in an attempt to cope with the choking influxes of people. At this time Glasgow became known as the "Second City of the Empire" - a curious epithet for a place that today rarely acknowledges second place in anything.

By the turn of the twentieth century, Glasgow's industries had been honed into one massive shipbuilding culture. Everything from tugboats to transatlantic liners were fashioned out of sheet metal in the yards that straddled the Clyde. In the harsh economic climate of the 1930s, however, unemployment spiralled, and Glasgow could do little to counter its popular image as a city dominated by inebriate violence and - having absorbed vast numbers of Irish emigrants - sectarian tensions.

Shipbuilding, and many associated industries, died away almost completely in the 1960s and 1970s, leaving the city depressed, jobless and directionless. Then, in the 1980s, the self-promotion campaign began, snowballing towards the 1988 Garden Festival and year-long party as European City of Culture in 1990. More recently, Glasgow was UK City of Architecture and Design in 1999, an event which strove valiantly to showcase the city's rich architectural heritage.

Glasgow International airport (tel 0141/887 1111, ) is at Abbotsinch, eight miles southwest of the city - not to be confused with Glasgow Prestwick airport, which is thirty miles south near Ayr. From the international airport, the Glasgow Airport Link bus (£3.30; information tel 0870/608 2608) runs from bus stops 1 or 2 into the central Buchanan Street bus station every fifteen minutes during the day. White airport taxis charge around £15.

From Glasgow Prestwick airport (tel 01292/511000, ), buses to Glasgow depart from directly outside the terminal: there's an express bus (hourly; 50min), or Airbus #4 (Mon-Sat every 30min, Sun hourly), which costs just 50p if you have an air ticket but takes an hour and a half. The train station is a short walk from the terminal (alight at the airport not Prestwick Town), with trains taking 45 minutes to reach Glasgow (Mon-Sat every 30min, Sun hourly).

Nearly all trains from England come into Central station , which sits over Argyle Street, one of the city's main shopping thoroughfares. Bus #398 from the front entrance on Gordon Street shuttles every ten minutes to Queen Street station , at the corner of George Square, terminus for trains serving Edinburgh and the north. The walk between the two takes about ten minutes. Bus #398 also stops at Buchanan Street bus station , arrival point for regional and inter-city coaches .

Glasgow weather is typical of Scottish weather and often unpredictable.

The summer months (May to September) are often sunny and mild. The winds are generally westerly, due to the warm Gulf Stream. The warmest month is usually July, averaging 19°C (66.2°F). However, temperature can change suddenly, and is normally a few degrees colder than southern England. Mornings may be damp and misty, or dreich (a Scottish word for damp and drizzly), but become sunny and warm by afternoon.

Though there are some rainy and windy days, spring (March to May) is fairly mild and is a popular time to visit Glasgow. Many of Glasgow's trees begin to flower at this time of the year and the parks and gardens are filled with spring colour.

Winters can be damp with few sunny days, however the Gulf Stream ensures that Glasgow stays warmer than other cities at the same latitude. Winds can be chilling and cold, though severe snow falls are infrequent and do not last. December, January and February are the wettest months of the year, but can occasionally be sunny and warm.

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