Category: Tours

Dark Chester named finalist in the Marketing Cheshire Tourism Awards

 

It’s official: Dark Chester has been named as a finalist at the Marketing Cheshire Tourism Awards.

The dark-tourism walking tour of the heritage city of Chester received the nod as a finalist for Experience of the Year.

It picked up a second nomination for New Tourism Business of the Year.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Chester Cathedral on March 21, 2024.

Meanwhile, Dark Chester tours continue weekly over Halloween with a special event on October 26.

Dark Dinner is a collab with the King’s Kitchen at the Brewery Tap, Chester, including a walking tour of the city, then a two-course menu with added spooky stories.

Follow @darkchestertour on Instagram

More information from The Brewery Tap.

Liked this? Then read Dark Chester runs special spooky tours for the Chester Heritage Festival.

Dark Chester presents: Dark Dinner — the spookiest supper in Chester

Dark Chester tour [pictured above] shines a flickering candlelight into the darkest corners of Chester’s dark-tourism heritage.

You may have already seen us walking around Chester, or previously joined us for a walk through the mists of dark history.

But now it’s time to explore the city afresh. And, what’s more, we’re going even darker.

For Halloween this year, we’ll be leading the darkest ever Dark Chester walking tour, bringing a frisson of Gothic noir to your October half term.

Expect new spooky stories, frightening folk tales and new perspectives as the darkness of the winter months engulfs us.

Plus, join us for an exclusive event on Thursday, October 26.

Dark Chester presents: Dark Dinner

We will lead a 90-minute Dark Chester tour, departing from Town Hall Square at 6pm. Then we finish our walk on Lower Bridge Street for a two-course menu served at King’s Kitchen restaurant at The Brewery Tap [pictured below] from 7.30pm.

Expect good food, craft ales and, over dinner, some spine-chilling ghost stories recounted by the tourist guide in a gloriously atmospheric setting.

Tickets cost £45pp and are available now via the Visitor Information Centre in Chester, or by calling 01244 405340. The tour is suitable for ages 10+.

Join us this Halloween and let’s take a walk on the darkest side ever.

Follow @darkchestertour on Instagram

More information from The Brewery Tap.

Liked this? Then read Dark Chester runs special spooky tours for the Chester Heritage Festival.

Dark Chester runs special spooky tours for Chester Heritage Festival

 

Image: Stuart Robinson Photography [www.stuartrobinson.photography] 

Dark Chester ran some special walking tours as part of the Chester Heritage Festival this month.

Each time, we finished the regular tour by doing something we’ve ever done before: going into a Chester building to hear a spooky story first hand.

First up was a visit to the restaurant Carbonara on Bridge Street Row.

Here, the owner, Sam, shared with us his experience of discovering the haunting of the wood-panelled upper room when he first moved into the building.

The second of the special tours took us to Huxley’s, the cafe-bar beside Chester’s famous Eastgate Clock.

Neil, the owner, talked about the history of the building and his family connection to the Freemen of Chester, who had earlier that day joined the city’s Midsummer Watch Parade.

Look out for more Dark Chester special tours coming this autumn as thoughts turn to Halloween.

More from the Chester Heritage Festival in the Our Heritage section.

Liked this? Then read Dark Chester collaborates with My Haunted Hotel.

Dark Chester highlights dark tourism trend in Cheshire Life magazine feature

Dark Chester was featured in the April issue of Cheshire Life magazine [pictured above].

I wrote a feature about  the rise of dark tourism in Chester and how my tour taps into this trend to explore the darker side of our history.

Here’s an extract:

Dark Chester is a storytelling walking tour of the city, which traces a journey through all periods of Chester history from the Romans to The Beatles.

It highlights some of our lesser-known stories, such as tales of Viking Chester and the Anglo-Saxon fortification of Chester as a burh, a defended settlement.

It also spotlights some of the lesser-known figures from our history, such as Aethelflaed, the daughter of Alfred the Great, and St Werburgh, whose relics were said to be paraded around the city walls during raids by the Welsh.

The focus is dark history. By exploring the dark side, the tour reflects the growing interest in dark tourism, or visits to places associated with dark tales.

As Dr Philip Stone of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research, explains in his book, 111 Dark Places in England that You Shouldn’t Miss:

“Dark tourism allows us to sightsee in the mansions of the dead, while having deference to those deceased.”

Read more at Cheshire Life magazine.

Liked this? Then read Take a walk on the dark side for the BGTG blog.