Tag: Halloween

How to spend a spooky Halloween weekend in haunted Nottingham

Nottingham is home to some of Britain’s most haunted buildings.

I spent an autumnal weekend in the East Midlands city to get a feel for its dark-tourism heritage on a Halloween assignment for the Daily Mail travel section.

My feature was published at the weekend and here’s a taster:

The whole city, first founded by the Anglo-Saxons, is built on a sandstone bedrock, leaving a labyrinthine system of 800 man-made caves deep under the modern cityscape.

Folk tales of use as makeshift prisons and torture chambers lurk in the darkest corners.

“Rebellious Nottingham has lots of dark stories,” says tourist guide Keri Usherwood.

“From Robin Hood to the Lace Market Luddites of the 19thcentury textile trade, these stories help us make sense of our place in the world today.”

But the spookiest place in Nottingham is an ancient pub with a dark history.

Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem dates from 1189 and is said to be the oldest pub in England. It was a staging point for medieval pilgrims seeking refreshment and built into the castle cliff face.

Taking a seat in the upstairs Rock Lounge with pint of Olde Trip best bitter, I’m joined by landlord Karl Gibson, who has experienced regular paranormal activity since taking over in 2012.

“I’ve come to respect the history of both the pub and the city,” says Karl. “When I’m here alone, I feel these walls are telling me something.”

Read the full story via Daily Mail travel, Discovering the haunted joys of Nottingham.

More information Visit Nottinghamshire www.visit-nottinghamshire.co.uk.

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.

How to celebrate 125 years of Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel, Dracula, at Whitby Abbey

 A trip to Whitby to get into the Halloween spirit.

My visit was part of a wider itinerary to explore the Yorkshire Coast Route, a new route intended to showcase the off-season charms of the Yorkshire seaside.

The route spans 240 miles, taking in the North Yorks Moors National Park and walking routes off the Cleveland Way National Trail.

The highlight, however, is Whitby.

Gothic novel

The traditional Yorkshire fishing village of Whitby is bracing itself for a black-mascara influx this autumn, hosting events to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula.

Published in 1897, Dracula was inspired by the seascape and atmospheric backstreets of Whitby with several key scenes set in the town.

The spindly ruins of Whitby Abbey [pictured above] remain the main draw, the Gothic-novel literati eagerly climbing the 199 steep, stone steps to soak up the abbey’s atmospheric setting. 

By the time Bram Stoker visited Whitby in August 1890, the abbey had long since adopted its eerily tumbledown form.

He drew on local legends, such as the wreck of a sailing vessel, The Demeter in the novel, and the folklore of the barghest, a wolf-like hound that stalked the moors.

These added local colour to the story of his Transylvanian anti-hero.

Hence, when Dracula is shipwrecked off Whitby, Stoker has him transform into a fierce black dog, leaping from the ship to bound up the cliffs to the abbey.

Victorian values

“Dracula’s animalistic representation of the occult loomed large in the Victorian imagination.”

“The beastly incarnation was both shocking, yet fascinating, to Victorian society,” says Mark Williamson, Site Manager for English Heritage.

Read the full story in i Travel, A Very Gothic Grand Tour.

More from https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/whitby-abbey/things-to-do/

Why a Halloween trip to the Peak District is the ultimate dark-tourism break

A Halloween story.

It is based around an autumnal visit to the Peak District village of Eyam, otherwise known as ‘the plague village’.

But my visit on a sunny September day proved prescient not just for a spooky Halloween story  slot in Telegraph Travel, but also as a reminder of how history repeats itself.

Given the announcement of a new national lockdown in England this weekend, the story of Eyam feels more appropriate than ever — despite being over 350 years old.

Here’s a flavour of my feature:

The village of Eyam has been dramatically thrust back into the spotlight this year, however.

The history-repeating parallel between the heroic sacrifice of our 17th-century forefathers and the global response to the Coronavirus pandemic today has made it an unlikely haven for dark tourism fans.

While I find it busy with walkers sipping coffees around a flower-garnished village green on an autumnal day, it’s dark past hangs like mist over the peaks.

Read the full article in Telegraph Travel here.