Category: Tours

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.

Take a walk on the dark side for the British Guild of Tourist Guides blog

When Dark Chester first launched, I write a guest blog post for the British Guild of Tourist Guides (BGTG) to explain my ideas behind the tour [pictured above in Chester].

Here’s an extract:

I wanted to compile a 90-minute dark-tourism tour, exploring some of the favourite folk tales, legends and superstitions that have fascinated Cestrians, that’s the people of Chester, for centuries. I also wanted to let visitors peer behind the visitor-friendly façade of some of our best- known attractions to uncover the darker and lesser-known stories of the macabre.

But don’t worry. The Dark Chester tour is no jump-scares pantomime, nor is it a dry, academic lecture.

It’s an atmospheric evening walk, mixing a dash of Horrible Histories with some League of Gentlemen-style dark humour.

Read the full blog post via the BGTG blog.

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

Dark Chester collaborates with My Haunted Hotel for paranormal tales of Chester

Dark Chester joined forces recently with My Haunted Hotel, the paranormal investigation team based at Ye Olde King’s Head in Chester.

We talked about the dark-tourism heritage that inevitably comes with living in a 2,000-year-old city like Chester.

The team used my tales of grisly murder and witchcraft in Chester to call out to the spirits as part of their ongoing vigil.

Watch this episode of My Haunted Hotel for the Dark Chester collaboration [screenshot above].

A preview of my Dark Chester tours for Halloween with the travel blog Go Eat Do

An interview with the travel blogger Stuart Forster for his blog, Go Eat Do.

The feature is about ideas for a weekend visit to Chester but, with Halloween approaching, previews my new Dark Chester tours [pictured above].

The tours run Saturdays at 6pm and delve into the dark-tourism heritage of the city, exploring 2,000 years of plague, poltergeists and religious persecution.

Talking about St John’s Church, a Saxon site of worship from 689AD, I describe how:

“Cestrians, the people of Chester, call it ‘the thin church’. It’s a reference to the fact it’s one of those places in the city where the world we know, and another we can’t explain, is at its thinest point. It’s a place to step across the supernatural threshold.”

We also discuss, amongst others, the Chester Mystery Plays and the Chester Heritage Festival (both returning in June 2023).

Plus wider ideas for things to do and see during your visit.

Read the full story at Go Eat Do, Haunted places in England: Chester walking tour.