Ghostly Glenart on the Eve of All Hallow
REPORTER DAVIDMEDCALF MADE SURE TO GO IN DAYTIME TO GLENART OUTSIDE ARKLOW WHERE AISLING WHITE PRESIDES OVER AN INCREASINGLY POPULAR HALLOWEEN SPECTACULAR WITH A FULL ARRAY OF SEASONAL SPECIAL EFFECTS
AISLING White is just about the least scary person you could hope to meet.
The refreshingly normal, chatty 26-year-old former St Mary’s school student is happily employed as a social care worker in a job which suits her sunny and energetic temperament. But once a year, she teams up with her uncle Richard White to terrify people, terrify them as much as they possibly can.
Once this sinister alternative Aisling is given full rein, she will not be happy unless those who cross her path are reduced to quivering hysteria. The walk in haunted woods which she offers will bring her victims (paying customers) face to face with their worst nightmares – or they may demand their money back.
Welcome to the wicked world of Glenart estate at the Eve of All Hallows. Arklow is the Halloween capital of Ireland with the niece-and-uncle combination at the disembodied heart of the ghoulish action…
The pair both grew up at nearby Kilcarra and Richard – a worker at Woodfab Timber in Aughrim when at his day job – spent much of his childhood exploring the estate.
The place has woods and fields, along with a wonderful castle, making it his perfect informal playground during school holidays. The castle is nowadays a private residence but the grounds still provide a great setting to fire an imagination, especially an imagination tinged with ghostly intent.
The centrepiece amidst the woodland of the Glenart estate is an old courtyard with high brick walls surrounded by semi-derelict stables and other outbuildings. Next door is a broken down deserted house which has seen better days a long time ago, now prone to invasion by ivy and damp through broken windows.
It was once the home of an order of missionary priests but the reverend fathers have long since bailed out and left the place to the spectres and the things that go bump in the dead of night.
Others would look at such a place and think let’s renovate. Richard and Aisling – who style themselves Glenart Outdoors – say don’t touch a thing. With its creepers and crumbling plasterwork, with its cobbles and bockety shutters, they reckon it is the perfect setting for what they want to do. And what they want to do is have the world accept their invitation to: ‘enter our Halloween scares for a heart-pumping adrenaline-filled experience’.
Aisling laughs at the suggestion that she must have grown up watching endless episodes of ‘Scooby Doo’ on the television. However, she does admit to enjoying a good horror movie and her favourite of the genre is ‘Annabelle’.
That is the film centred on a vintage doll which brings to the screen terrifying supernatural occurrences and a particularly vicious band of satanic cultists. Others watch such productions cowering in their seats, their hands covering their eyes to shut out the worst of the gore. Aisling is probably the one in the front seat of the cinema coolly taking notes as she draws inspiration for her next special effect.
Glenart Outdoors first began their reign of terror five years back when they hit upon the idea of running a Halloween ghost train through the creepy shadows of the estate. The train proved so popular that they expanded the idea year by
year, each time using more of the buildings and more of the grounds.
It helps that Richard White is a talented carver of wood with an occasionally macabre turn of mind, whose creations dot the woodland.
The numbers paying to have their worst dreams played out in front of them have increased each time and the annual attendance now runs into the thousands.
Thrill seekers from as far away Dublin, Tipperary, Cork and beyond are coming to Arklow this week, many of them back for more after enjoying themselves so much last time.
This year the organisers have abandoned the train, requiring their visitors to walk along a carefully designed path while their senses are assaulted from all sides. And it has been made clear in all the publicity that this is not an experience to which young children should be exposed.
A large cast of actors has been in rehearsal under the direction of Aisling White working to extract the last drop of petrifying theatre from the setting and the costumes. Speaking in broad daylight before the opening of their run, she was reluctant to give away too much of the contents.
‘We are getting bigger and bigger,’ she commented, so big in fact that she has jettisoned her Bride of Dracula mask in order to concentrate on running the event. A natural impresario, she enjoys bringing people to Glenart.
During the summer, the two Whites staged an open air country music event in the same location. All the gingham and denim which went with the Legends of American Country in August is a contrast to the blood and gore on show this week.
It is clear that Aisling’s first love is not so much the music as the business of giving the public a thorough fright. She is at a loss to explain just why it is that Arklow comes so much alive in the spirit of the ‘ Thriller’ video around Halloween.
The town is one of the few on the planet where the slightly sinister practice of Banging Night is still observed. Mischievous pranksters feel compelled to bang on doors and run away like so many naughty schoolchildren.
Main Street will doubtless be heaving on Halloween night as always, locals and strangers all decked out in creepy disguise.
Commercial celebrations of October 31 have sprung up around the country and Aisling is well aware of the competition at various venues.
She takes pride in the fact that Glenart’s scarathon is not presented in a warehouse but in a far more authentic setting.
‘ These are really old buildings,’ she stressed as she gave a sneak press preview before opening night, walking airily past a skeleton nailed to the wall.
‘ They are genuinely dark and scary even before we carry out the work. The land is perfect too, with real forest.’
Once they leave the security of the car park beside the Vale Road, those who dare to come on this creepiest of outings have their senses assaulted from all sides.
‘We love doing it and we never expected it to turn out as big as it has,’ mused the lady behind all the terror.
She spent the past few months promoting what is being presented under the title ‘Paranoia’
The blurb reads: ‘where you will come face to face with your worst nightmare, journey through endless corridors, rooms of terror and forests of darkness.’
She has been coaching squads of witches and grave diggers, with rehearsals starting in daytime, before fine tuning under cover of night for maximum spine chilling effect.
Her uncle has overseen the installation of a full scale graveyard in amongst the undergrowth while the buildings around the courtyard have been altered to make a morgue, an asylum and a grotesque quarantine room.
The task was made all the easier by the fact that the place, though structurally sound, is genuinely run down and shabby.
Next door, count carefully and you may note that the old house – in this context referred to of course as the Haunted House – has 13 chimney stacks. That’s right, thirteen.
‘From the moment you step out of your car you are being scared. There is no avoiding it,’ promised the woman behind Paranoia.
‘Richard is very creative and we watch a lot of horror movies. We have a lot of listed scares. Halloween is what we are known for.’
She loves hearing wideeyed punters saying ‘what the hell was that’ and wondering if they will be able to get a night’s sleep after being at Glenart.
‘It’s full on and it is not for the faint-hearted. It will make you think.’ Make you think that you may collapse on the spot! ‘ There will be no place here where there is nothing scary.’
The attention to detail involved in preparation and presentation makes the Halloween spooktacular almost a full time job.
The work of planning for 2017 will begin promptly once daylight dawns on November 1.
The organisers will start with a rigorous review of the current extravaganza to assess what has worked best.
‘It has taken a lot of learning over the years but we have always done well. We love it and we would like to do it all year round.’ But Halloween comes just once each twelvemonth. A few final places aboard Paranoia may be available for this year’s event.
Check http://glenartoutdoors.rezgo.com/ and then see if it lives up to the billing: ‘ That will scare you like never before and promises to test all your boundaries of bravery.’
IT’S FULL ON AND IT IS NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED. IT WILL MAKE YOU THINK. THERE WILL BE NO PLACE HERE WHERE THERE IS NOTHING SCARY