Dark Chester named finalist in the Marketing Cheshire Tourism Awards
October 13, 2023It’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.… Read more
Dark Chester presents: Dark Dinner — the spookiest supper in Chester
September 28, 2023Dark 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,… Read more
Dark Chester runs special spooky tours for Chester Heritage Festival
June 27, 2023Image: 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… Read more
Dark Chester highlights dark tourism trend in Cheshire Life magazine feature
May 9, 2023Dark 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… Read more
Take a walk on the dark side for the British Guild of Tourist Guides blog
May 9, 2023When 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… Read more
Dark Chester collaborates with My Haunted Hotel for paranormal tales of Chester
May 9, 2023Dark 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… Read more
A preview of my Dark Chester tours for Halloween with the travel blog Go Eat Do
October 9, 2022An 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… Read more
Dark Chester: a walk through the shadows of our dark-tourism history
June 21, 2022We took a walk on the dark side a few days ago. It was the inaugural outing for my new Dark Chester tour [pictured above], a walking tour through the shadows of Chester’s 2000-year-old history. Think Horrible Histories meets Inside Number Nine with a dash of the Uncanny podcast. In… Read more
How to discover hidden Manchester on an alternative city tour
February 13, 2022I’m always on the look out for an alternative city walking tour. It’s a great way to see a city in a new light and gives me with inspiration to help design my own themed tours of my home city of Chester. I was introduced recently to Hayley Flynn, whose Skyliner… Read more