FRIGHT SEEING
Creepy castles and ghostly graveyards feature in tour for Halloween thrill seekers
Halloween is just a week away – and a fright-seeing tour has been launched to attract visitors to the nation’s scariest places.
VisitScotland have put together Scotland’s Ghost Trail, which will take courageous souls on a journey around the spookiest sites in the country.
The promotion, which takes in venues from Dumfriesshire to Orkney, features ghostly graveyards and creepy castles where all kinds of spooks – including Jacobite soldiers and a headless drummer – await those brave enough to visit.
The Ghost Trail also features the Green Lady of Crathes Castle in Aberdeenshire and Edinburgh’s Mackenzie Poltergeist.
Halloween originates from an ancient tradition and is based on the Celts’ “Feast of Samhain”.
The night before became known as All Saints’ Eve, All Hallows’ Eve, or Hallowe’en.
Malcolm Roughead, VisitScotland chief executive, said the Ghost Trail was designed to “capitalise on the public’s fascination” with the sinister side of the nation’s history.
He said: “Scotland is the place to be at Halloween with our atmospheric landscape, creepy castles, haunted historic houses, superstitions and bloody history. This time of year brings a huge tourism potential.
“But ghosts are not just for Halloween – spirits are said to haunt these locations year-round so it is important for us to extend these festivities from one night only and capitalise on the public’s fascination with things that go bump in the night.”
Mark Bishop, director of customer & cause at the National Trust for Scotland, added: “Scotland’s history and heritage provides plenty of stories that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and we know that visitors love hearing about the darker side.
“Our Halloween events, like the Stoats Creepy Crawl, are inspired by the stories of the places we protect and are all the more powerful for that.”
For more information on Scotland’s Ghost Trail, go to www.visitscotland. com/ghosttrail