Watch your step and enjoy the pretty lights!
3
3
Date of visit: December 2025
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: a hidden impairment and moving around.
Overall Rating
Average
I got to the Winter Wonderland at Glasgow Green later in the afternoon when there was still a bit of daylight left, which I was grateful for since it was hard enough to see the best way with the flooring or spotting curbs where you would expect a ramp, but it did look much prettier with the lights when it got dark. I tried to get in the mood and enjoyed bopping along to the music and looking at the lights, but there was not that much that I actually wanted to do – in a way I almost tried to not get too excited about anything I saw from afar because it seemed so likely that I would not be able to properly get to it (like axe throwing or marshmallow roasting). It is lovely that I would be able to join my friends and family on the ice if we were to go ice skating, but it would be for the company, as being on the ice in a wheelchair is not much more exciting than being on other types of ground. I definitely appreciated that there was a proper accessible bathroom and not just portapotties, but I could easily see myself get stuck in the mud or on the lip of a door on the way there. When we got back to the car and folded up my wheelchair, there was a clank and we found that a piece of metal had broken off the frame. It is in the shop now to get fixed and I will not be going on any more Christmas markets or other outings in the meantime. If only everything being “fully accessible” had not meant having to push and pull my chair with destructive force any time I wanted to do more than just wheel past anything interesting…
Disabled Access In and Around
Average
The market is a long way in from the official entrance through McLellan Arch from Saltmarket, but the walk is quite pretty with the lights in the trees creating a nice atmosphere. The Ferris Wheel is the first attraction you pass on your left when coming from Saltmarket. It has one capsule with a wider opening that is marked as accessible, but there was no step-free access to the ticket booth and the wheel by default and I did not try it. Walking deeper into the park, you get to another round plaza with some rides and carnival games. The panto ticket booth is on the left and just behind it is the pantomime tent. You can get to it by turning left onto the path behind the booth and left again on some temporary flooring. There was no one at the pantomime booth, which had a pretty high up window and no sign of when there would be someone there. From there onwards, the market is split into three parallel paths. The left strand has the bar tent in the front with lots of beer benches and tables and Santa’s Grotto towards the back left and a view of the ice rink. The entrance and exit of the bar tent has non-automatic double doors which open to the outside and the thresholds are quite high. The doors have push rods to open from inside and handles on the outside. There is a significant height difference between flooring right outside the bar tent and the main walkway area, which is a problem upon exiting as there is a sheer edge of about half an inch. A member of the staff had to assist me in reaching the higher floor. The bar counter is at a decent height. There is a chippie inside the bar tent with a pretty high counter. There is a proper accessible toilet through the bar tent and exit at the back right of the tent. The middle strand has mainly food and drink stalls. This is the paved park path, so it is flat and pretty smooth. All the stalls in the middle strand are at the top of the curb. They are right on the edge, so you can get to them without going up the curb, but it does make the counters and displays a little higher. There were other stalls that were not incredibly high up, especially in the little plazas at the beginning and end of the three lanes. The right strand has rides on one side and big prize games on the other. There are picnic tables at the non-ramped ends of the side strands, but otherwise the seating is mostly in and in front of the bar tent. The side strands are up curbs where grass would usually be, mostly large area metal walkways with some smaller less well-connected plastic flooring bits between ramps and main walkway area. Some overlap and there are some uncovered bits there. There are lots of trip hazards where bits of flooring connect. It is not very brightly lit either! There is only one ramped way in and out of the side strands – front left and back right. However, there are several connections between the side and main strand that have unramped curbs, which caught me by surprise! Just before you get to them, there are big cable ramps, so I was coming at it with some momentum. Of course there is a big mishmash of loud-ish Christmas music that changes as you pass by the stalls and attractions as well as decorative lights, a number of which are moving and flashing. The ice rink is at the back of the market beyond the three lanes. The ice-rink booth window was lower down than the panto booth. There is a glass wall with a small opening between you and staff. You can book the tickets for the ice rink online, which is slightly cheaper, and get a discount for Glasgow residents with proof of address online and in-person. ASN sessions had already happened during the first two weeks of the event with fewer skaters and music at a lower volume. When I visited on a weekday afternoon, it was not super busy either and the music was not the loudest I have heard, so it might be a better option if you struggle with sensory overload than a weekend or evening session. There is step-free access up to the rink, although there are some pretty steep ramps up from the changing tent to outside the rink. I found the right-hand ramp to be less steep. The threshold to get on to the rink is pretty high and staff seemed reluctant to bring out ramps and were talking about lifting the chair a lot. They did, however, bring out two bits of wood in the end that, stacked, were a good height to get in and I did just go down the inside without a ramp, but for the way out I convinced them to get a ramp for the ice side as well and that was almost perfect. There was no issue with the wheelchair on the ice, I barely slipped and felt quite in control, but I also tried it out in between sessions, so there were no other skaters. During sessions there is a worker skating on the ice as well. There are skating aids that cost extra to hire. The ice gets quite ripped up by the end of a session and I am not sure if they redo the surface after every session. The music in the rink is playing at a medium to high volume.
Accessible facilities: Step-free entrance, Step-free access to most areas
Parking & Transport
Poor
I travelled to this place by personal vehicle
The nearest bus stops are a 0.3-mile/8-minute walk or wheel from the entrance: Stockwell Street (7A, 31, 64, 65) and 0.3 miles Candleriggs (2, 18, 18A, 60, 60A, 61, 64, 240 Lanarkshire Connect, 255, 263, CB4). The closest train stations are Argyle Street (0.4-mile/10-minute walk or wheel) and High Street (0.5-mile/12-minute walk or wheel). There is some street parking on Greendyke Street, which also has paths accessing Glasgow Green. The paid surface car park at King Street is a 0.2-mile/5-minute walk or wheel away. There are some bays with double yellow lines outside McLennan Arch that will probably be free for a drop-off.
Accessible facilities: Public or on street parking, Drop-off or pick up point
Accessible Toilets
Average
There are portapotty clusters at several spots, most with one larger “accessible” one. I found them to be still quite small, though, and not have very many handholds. There would be no space for a carer, no space to move around in a chair or even fit a larger chair. There are also no emergency cords. There is a proper accessible toilet through the bar tent and exit at the back right of the tent. There are badly connected bits of plastic walkway up to the accessible bathroom container. The plastic mats overlap at times and do not always allow to avoid the mud. There is a ramp up to a non-automatic door opening to the outside right. No key is needed to access the bathroom. There is a handrail on the back of the door and a lever handle. There is a large mirror and a baby change on the wall to your right when you come in. The hand dryer and sink are on the wall to your left. The toilet is on the back wall. There is a fixed vertical and a horizontal handrail to the left of the toilet that can be lifted and moved out of the way and a fixed horizontal handrail on the wall to the right of the toilet. The flush is a button on top of the cistern. The toilet paper holder is to the right of the toilet. There is space for a right-side transfer. When I visited, the baby change was folded down blocking the transfer space along with a wet floor sign. The red cord is to the right of the toilet and the sink. There are vertical handrails on either side of the sink. The sink is a small wall-mounted sink and the tap has a short lever. There is a wall-mounted soap dispenser to the left of the sink. There is only a hand dryer, no paper towels. There is no bin. There is a coat hook up high on the back wall next to the toilet and the baby change. There are several steps up to cubicle containers in the same spot.
Facilities: Accessible toilet
Staff
Average
At the ice rink, the staff were quick to confirm the accessibility but I found them a bit slow to put it into action. They have simple wooden ramps that can be stacked and two ramps up to the ice rink and one ramp down onto the rink was a good setup, but it felt like I had to convince them all over again with each ramp to bring it out. I ran into more staff while going around. One person at the bar tent helped me to get up the difference in flooring and asked if I needed help with the doors. I appreciated how proactive they were, but wish it would not have been necessary. There was another member of staff who saw me get stuck at a path that had an unramped curb. They told me I had to go all the way back and said they would get the curb sorted, but I was not sure that this was going to happen, as the event had been on for weeks and I certainly was not the first wheelchair user there.
