Visitors to Glasgow’s museums, arts and leisure venues hit a record number of visitors last year.

Figures from Glasgow Life, which runs the venues for the council show that a total of 18.9 million visits were made to facilities.

Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery was again one of the top attractions for Glaswegians and visitors with more than 1.3m visits.The Riverside Museum also broke through 1.3m.

A series of events were held to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Rennie Mackintosh which helped Scotland Street School record a 29% increase in visitors.

As well as the visitor attractions the cities facilities for the people of Glasgow including public libraries and sports centres also proved popular with more people using them.

Read more: Major Linda McCartney exhibition opens in Glasgow 

Glasgow has 33 community libraries including the Mitchell Library and they recorded 4.7m visits over the year.

Sports centres including he Emirates arena, built for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and the Tollcross swimming centre, which was refurbished for the Games, showed 6.9m visits, breaking the six million mark for the seventh year in a row.

David McDonald, deputy leader of Glasgow City council is chair of Glasgow Life.

He said: “We want everyone to live a great Glasgow life.

“More people are getting fit and physically active; more people are engaging with, and enjoying, our cultural assets, more people are benefitting from services which are rooted in, and valued by, their local communities.”

Read more: Kelvingrove Bandstand festival bosses promise 'even more artists' next year 

Music and arts also played a part in bossing visitor numbers to the city with venues like the Royal Concert Hall and festivals like Celtic Connections drawing in people.

Celtic Connections attracted a record 130,000 visitors across 300 events. Together the city run music venues including the Concert Hall, City Halls, Old Fruitmarket and the Kelvingrove Bandstand attracted more than 475,000 attendances.

Dr Bridget McConnell, Chief Executive of Glasgow Life, said: “We’ve enjoyed another exceptional year. From stand-out events such as the 2018 European Championships, to bringing Dippy the dinosaur to Kelvingrove, we’ve worked to provide opportunities which touch the lives of citizens and visitors alike.”