Glasgow's Tall Ship Glenlee masts removed for first time in three decades

Glasgow’s famous Tall Ship and the floating museum’s distinctive masts are being removed for the first time in three decades for essential conservation work.

The Tall Ship Glenlee sits alongside the Riverside Museum, welcoming around 200,000 visitors from around the world annually.

This week, two of the floating museum’s three famous masts are being removed for refurbishment and repair.

It comes as the vessel enters the second phase of a £1.8m National Heritage Memorial Fund project.

It marks the first major overhaul of the ship’s rigging in 30 years, involving the removal, refurbishment, and reinstatement of all three masts between January and July 2026.

“We are so pleased that this next stage of looking after our Tall Ship Glenlee is happening,” Fiona Greer, development director of The Tall Ship Glenlee, said.

“Maintaining an historic vessel is an expensive but essential business: we want to ensure that Glenlee remains in the best possible condition.

“Being able to upgrade her rigging with the funding received from the National Heritage Memorial Fund is something we have been planning for a long time.

The Tall Ship Glenlee will see the first major overhaul of the rigging in 30 years. Image by Martin Shields for The Tall Ship Glenlee

Ms Greer added: “People have asked us about watching the process as it happens, as it’s not something one sees every day. We are recommending that people watch from the Govan side or at the Govan-Partick Bridge footbridge. We don’t recommend being close to the ship because of the proximity of cranes.”

Built in 1896 in the town of Port Glasgow, the former merchant sailing vessel was designed to carry cargo across the world and has circumnavigated the globe five times.

By the 1990s, Glenlee was in a state of disrepair before being rescued by what is now known as the Tall Ship Glenlee Trust.

The ship has since been restored to her former glory and has become a popular museum, visitor attraction and events venue.

It is the last remaining three-masted Clyde-built sailing ship still afloat in the UK, the only steel square-rigged cargo vessel remaining in the whole of the UK, and one of just four Clyde-built sailing vessels of its kind remaining in the world.

Mr Greer reassured visitors that The Tall Ship Glenlee will be open while the conservation work is happening in the coming months.