With the dark nights drawing in and October now upon us, it is now, officially, an acceptable time to start getting into the spooky Halloween spirit! 🎃
As always, there are lots of amazing Halloween themed days out and events to look forward to, ranging from enchanting, family friendly trails to utterly terrifying, adults only scare experiences, so we have rounded up a selection of our favourite Halloween Days Out highlights to help you decide!
Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience is back for 2022! Walk into the depths of a dark forest and discover fantastic beasts and iconic wizarding world moments illuminated like never before!
The magical, family-friendly event returns to the awe-inspiring woods of Arley Hall & Gardens in Cheshire from Saturday 15 October, and runs until Sunday 4th December.
Inspired by the iconic Forbidden Forest and featuring creatures from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series, mesmerising lights will transform the landscape into a magical outdoor trail. This year’s experience promises to be even better with a new range of exciting interactive features incorporated throughout the forest. From snakes lurking in the dark to a sleeping giant to be carefully awoken, to a lake which seems to be frozen by guests uttering the right spell, this year’s experience allows visitors to truly immerse themselves in each moment.Guests can also try their hand at casting spells throughout the trail, a firm favourite in the first year, and meet mystical creatures such as Hippogriffs, Centaurs, Unicorns and Nifflers.
NB: Age requirement: All ages welcome. Free entry for children under 5.
For more information, and to book tickets, please CLICK HERE.
SAW: THE EXPERIENCE, the official live escape experience, launches in London at the end of this month, just in time for Halloween!
SAW: THE EXPERIENCE will be an adrenaline-fuelled, theatrical experience bringing to life new twisted games in the world of the iconic horror film franchise. Combining the thrill of escape rooms with nerve-jangling horror, players will to be pushed to their limits in this new participatory theatrical experience.
Will you earn redemption through trials designed to test your teamwork, or will your moral compass betray others to ensure your own survivial? Make your choices. Live with the consquences.
SAW: THE EXPERIENCE is a partnership between global content leaders Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures and experiential production company The Path Entertainment Group.
For more information, and to book tickets, please CLICK HERE.
Experience an all-new interactive Halloween trail at Chester Zoo this October with LUNA’S LOST SPELL!
The event runs throughout October and is FREE with zoo entry!
Luna the witch needs YOUR help on a quest to find her lost spell, carefully crafted with the most powerful POISIONS and VENOMS from the world of nature.
Go on a mysterious adventure around our INDOOR animal habitats around the zoo to discover six amazing species. Use the magic of AUGMENTED REALITY on your phone or tablet to reveal their secrets!
For more information, and to book tickets, please CLICK HERE.
Scare City is back – bigger, better, and bloodier than ever!
Just in time for the Halloween season, experience the fear of the unknown at the terrifying Scare City Experience – sponsored by Swizzels – an intense, blood-soaked walkthrough horror experience located at the former Camelot Theme Park in Chorley, Lancashire.
With a 2km walk through different zones of terror, this is the world’s longest outdoor horror attraction, giving you more blood for your buck than ever before.
12 Horrific Horror Zones – including the Swizzels Blood Curdling Camelot Castle, The Forest of Fears, The Crypt of Camelot, Medieval Murder Zone, and Share if You Dare – come with terrifying live actors, delivering 2 hours worth of frightening fun.
Walk through our dreadful zones, such as the Whirlwind Woods, and keep your wits about you. As your nerves are shredded by every snap of a branch, the rustle of leaves and a gust of wind, something far more unnatural approaches. It’ll feed on your fear…if you let it. Will you make it out in one piece?
A WARNING and a promise: this experience is not for the faint of heart. Scare City Experience is fit only for those seeking a festival of fear, where glee and gore go hand-in-hand.
NB: The event is strictly contact free! Likewise, visitors are not permitted to make physical contact with the actors, any occurrence may result in removal from the venue.
PLEASE NOTE: YOU MUST BE OVER 16 TO ATTEND!
For more information, and to book tickets, please CLICK HERE.
Cannon Hall Farm, in the Pennine foothillsLooking for fun half-term activities for you and the kids? Then grab your wellies and head out on a FRUIT PICKING ADVENTURE! 🎃
Get into the Halloween mood at some of England’s best pumpkin patches or collect some fruit for your autumnal bakes with a spot of apple picking at these popular pick-your-own farms.
For more information and to find somewhere near to you, please visit: https://www.visitengland.com/autumn-fruit-picking-pumpkin-patch
Over 10 nights this Halloween season, Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein takes on a more sinister feel with their season of intense horror evenings, AFTER DARK – NIGHTS TO DIE FOR, running from 6-10pm from 21 to 31 October 2022.
Following a sell-out 2021, AFTER DARK returns with new, more extreme psychological horrors plus extended dates due to demand.
In this intense, multi-sensory horror event, set over five floors in a period town house in the centre of Bath, visitors will navigate the house in darkness encountering the horrors of ‘Purgatory’ on their way. Imprisoned within the many darkened rooms of 37 Gay Street dwell the most wretched of souls unworthy of redemption – they are the unforgiven. Their fate is eternal damnation. Featuring live actors, special effects and disturbing aromascapes.
- Venture through the house in darkness & face the harbingers of suffering trapped within the many rooms.
- Cower in your seat in the attic Screaming Room showing terrifying horror film bites.
- Brave the dank underbelly of the house in the X-treme Basement walk-through.
- Unlock the ramblings of an unhinged mind inside Victor’s Lair Escape Room.
- Meet the Creature – a world-first 8ft animatronic recreation of Frankenstein’s monster as Mary Shelley imagined.
- Steady your nerves with horrifyingly good cocktails in the atmospheric Bloody Mary’s Bar.
Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein is also open daily offering their multi-awarding winning multi-sensory museum experience that tells the tragic story of Mary Shelley and how it came to be she wrote one of the most influential novels of all time, aged just 19 whilst living in Bath.
For more information, and to book please CLICK HERE.
Explore selected English Heritage sites through a supernatural lens this autumn with storytellers and historians on hand to offer guided tours focused on the ghostly histories associated with the landmarks.
Guided tours will include a ‘Revenants and Remains’ experience at Furness Abbey and Lanercost Priory in Cumbria; Roche Abbey in South Yorkshire and Byland Abbey and Rievaulx Abbey in the North York Moors led by English Heritage’s Dr Michael Carter and Professor Dale Townshend from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Elsewhere visitors can enjoy evening ghost tours at locations including Eltham Palace and Gardens, Carlisle Castle and Tynemouth Priory between 28 – 31 October.
For those with families in tow, new events include a Half Term Beano Halloween Quest at over 20 English Heritage sites.
2022 also marks the 125th anniversary of the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, so where better to celebrate Halloween than at its inspirational gothic backdrop. Whitby Abbey will once again be illuminated after dark with the chance to experience the story of Dracula brought to life.
For more information, please visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/halloween and www.english-heritage.org.uk/halloween/creepy-castles-to-visit.
This Autumn, there are reports of strange goings on at The York Dungeon, which has promised its scariest ever Halloween with the launch of its brand new Halloween show – SÉANCE – which will introduce visitors to York Dungeon’s sinister Victorian medium, Georgiana Eagle, otherwise known as Madame Card.
Get ready to contact the Spirit world as you find yourself in the year 1872, participating in one of Madame Card’s sought after Séance shows where she will open your eyes to the world of the unliving. Spirits may be conjured and the etiquette for receiving a spirit must be adhered to…do you have what it takes? Clear your minds, focus, join hands and DO NOT break the circle…will you survive the Séance?!
Alongside SÉANCE, which is included with entry, guests will be immersed in the Dungeon’s (in)famous tales including Guy Fawkes, the Plague, the York witch Isabella Billington and the new Dick Turpin carriage ride.
Dungeon LATES evenings (strictly 18+ adults only) will be running on selected dates throughout October and offer guests a darker, scarier and naughtier alternative to the daytime tours. These evenings also feature a new exclusive 11th show, Body Snatchers!
And for Little Peasants who are too young (or scared!) for The York Dungeon, they will be running a Little Peasants City Walking Tour on selected dates in October. This one hour tour of the City of York will give families the chance to walk, laugh and learn as they explore the famous sights including Clifford’s Tower, York Minster and The Shambles. The York Dungeon’s Dungeon Jester and lovable sidekick Smedley will talk about York’s most infamous rogues and heavenly saints including Dick Turpin, Guy Fawkes and the Pearl of York herself, Margaret Clitherow.
For more information, and to book tickets, please CLICK HERE.
Journey to Hell Freak Nights return to Blackpool Pleasure Beach this Halloween. Will you be brave enough to travel through the eight scare zones to uncover the horrors that await?Â
Journey to Hell Freak Nights is a terrifying, experience led event featuring live actors through eight themed areas of Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Journey to Hell Freak Nights will leave your adrenaline flowing and heart thumping and take your terror to levels that you have never experienced before. Dare you enter the park after dark?Â
Journey to Hell Freak Nights take place on selected nights from the 7th to 30th October after the amusement park has closed to the public! Scare zones include The Legend of the Cursed River Caves, Pleasure Beach Hexpress, Rising Ghost Train, The Lost and more! Some scare zones incorporate thrilling ride experiences including intense high-speed rollercoasters.
The FY4 area of Blackpool Pleasure Beach will be transformed into a hellish area where you can join the Gate Keeper for live music and entertainment throughout the night whilst grabbing something to eat or drink – if you still have an appetite.
PLEASE NOTE: Journey to Hell is a separately ticketed event to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. You do not need to purchase an eTicket to attend the event. Journey to Hell is reserved for guests aged 10 years or older. All under 16s will need to be accompanied by an adult.
For more information, and to book tickets, please CLICK HERE.
National Trust Halloween Happenings, Nationwide
22 – 30 October (and selected dates)
Broomstick racing and wand making at Croft Castle and Parkland in Herefordshire; a Halloween half term trail at Gibside near Newcastle or a Scary Squirrels trail on Dorset’s Brownsea Island are just a few of the National Trust Halloween adventures awaiting visitors this October.
Plus, until 30 November, up to two adults and four children can enjoy the National Trust for free, with a single use admission pass available (terms and conditions apply).
For more information, please visit: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/spooky-halloween-adventures and www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/escape-into-autumn.
Are you brave enough to visit one of the most haunted places in the UK? Head to Oxford Castle & Prison this Halloween for GHOST FEST and let the building’s gruesome, 1,000-year history come to life!
Explore the vaulted well chamber, visit the punishment cells and go underground into the dark and spooky Crypt. Head to the top of St. Georges Tower to view the dreaming spires as the city lights twinkle.
For more information, and to book tickets, please CLICK HERE.
Treat your little swashbucklers to some scarily good fun on the New Forest’s Beaulieu River this Halloween with the CANOE HALLOWEEN TREASURE HUNT!
Navigate the high tides as you head out in a stable Canadian canoe on the hunt for devilishly delicious Halloween treasure along the riverside. Make sure you come adorned in your spookiest Halloween costumes and join the team for some fiendish fun on the water this October Half Term.
Will your rapscallions find Red Beard’s hidden treasure on Beaulieu River?
What’s Included:
- Two hour guided tour of the Beaulieu River
- Hunting for Halloween candy along the way
- Halloween treats for everyone taking part
- Stable 2/3 seated Canadian Canoes
- All equipment provided
- Stunning scenery and wildlife
- Family friendly fun
- Suitable for all ages
- No experience required
For more information, and to book, please visit: https://www.newforestactivities.co.uk/seasonal/canoe-halloween-treasure-hunt
Discover the superstitions and traditions of Halloween at the Eden Project this half term with an all-new HALLOWEDEN adventure!
Discover the traditions of Halloween and venture into the Rainforest Biome to explore cycles in nature at this special time of year. Uncover the 10 trail points in the Gardens to delve deeper into the origins of superstitions on the mysterious Magpie Trail.
Plus, visit the Pumpkin Patch for wild and wonderful stories, get hands-on in the Tipi with our Weave a Web Workshops (pre-booking required) – and take a spin on the spooky ice rink (additional charge applies).
What’s more, the attraction will be opening late into the evening so that, as the sun sets, you can keep warm by the light of the fire and in a brand-new experience, venture deep into the Rainforest Biome at twilight for a bewitching torchlit trail… if you dare…
PLEASE NOTE: All visits to Eden must be pre-booked in advance, including those who visit for free, such as Eden Project Members, existing Annual Passholders and Locals’ Passholders, carers and under-fives.Â
For more information, and to book, please CLICK HERE.
What could be better than an autumnal Go Ape adventure beneath a sunset and a canopy of colourful leaves?
Ditch the sofa and treat your tribe to an unforgettable adventure this Halloween with the 2022 SUNDOWN SESSIONS at 22 Go Ape sites across the UK. With more than 8 experiences available, there’s something for everyone, from tiny tots to ape sized daredevils. Sundown Sessions are available at selected sites running until 30th December.
Swing, bounce and zoom from dusk and into the night this autumn with the SUNDOWN SESSIONS. Thrill-seekers, from October, you are invited to become a creature of the forest with our nighttime adventures. Tackle mega-high platforms in the darkness or feel the speed of a zip wire as the sun goes down. With minimal lighting, these sense heightening experiences do add a new level of excitement into the mix.
It’s an ideal October Half Term evening out and chance to appreciate the forest as the seasons change. There are a limited number of sessions available though, so adventurers are urged to book ahead and secure a space.Â
Head to www.goape.co.uk/sundown for more information, prices and dates available.
Lights Out for Lantern Led Tours this Halloween at The Real Mary King’s Close!
Step beneath the Royal Mile and shine a light onto Edinburgh’s past with atmospheric, LANTERN LED TOURS, running throughout this Halloween season. Descend down the historic steps with one of The Close’s former residents and into complete darkness – the only light source is the flicker of your lanterns.
Discover the stories of the people who roamed the streets of Edinburgh years ago, learning all about their lives and deaths. You’ll also meet an insidious character that used to strike terror into people’s hearts at their very sight…
For more information, and to book, please CLICK HERE.
Wales’ biggest Halloween event returns for 2022, ready to thrill visitors with a range of terrifying horror attractions, hilarious roaming entertainment and much more.
TERROR MOUNTAIN is set just outside Aberystwyth, in the shadow of the Cambrian Mountains. By day, the site is a family friendly visitor attraction set in a Victorian mine, but by night, it morphs into a realm of nightmares, overrun with frightening creatures. These creatures are ready to deliver a night of terror, thrills, and fun for all that dare to visit. Set to be the biggest year yet, visitors can experience 5 frighteningly immersive LIVE ACTION horror attractions, as well as a BBQ, a bar and much more.
Terror Mountain is bringing a thrilling new addition to the line-up in 2022, in the form of 80’s slasher thriller KILLERZ. Visitors get to audition to be part of an exciting new horror film being shot on location at Terror Mountain, but there’s something the director isn’t telling you. Dubbed as their most terrifying attraction in the events’ 7-year history, it’s only for the bravest of visitors!
As well as KILLERZ, there will be some returning favourites including the terrifying Summoning, where visitors witness a Séance that goes wrong. Only the bravest of souls will venture into the woods, as rumours are rife that The Coven has returned, and they’re looking for sacrifices. Join us for the latest instalment of HAUNTED: LIVE, with popular vlogger ‘Haunted4Lyfe’… you don’t have to be a believer to feel spooked, and you never know, you might just find something that goes ‘bump’ in the night! Finally, you won’t want to miss Night Stalker, a live action show that will have you on the edge of your seat, as you try to discover the identity of a mysterious murderer.
Terror Mountain is running on selected nights from the 21st – 31st October 2022, so don’t miss your chance to have some thrilling fun this October. Tickets are strictly limited and have sold out in previous years, so pre-book online at www.terrormountain.co.uk/tickets.
