At the end of last week, I visited Quarry Bank, which is an estate owned by the National Trust in Cheshire, and I enjoyed the special Halloween trail. The Halloween trail included a lot of spooky scenery, illuminations, fire, actors dressed up as ghosts, and there was additional entertainment. I visited earlier in the day and saw some of the decorations already, but it really comes to live at dark, and some of the decorations are very spooky.
Before the trail, I had a gin and tonic and dinner at The Ship pub in Styal. This village was built by the owner of the Quarry Bank mill for his workers. He provided them a place to live and work and built the town of Styal. He built shops and pubs, which his workers spent their money on.
The trail started down the hill and wandered around the mill. The first series of spookiness were a few coffins with skeletons hanging out of them.
There were some ghosts or phantoms with lanterns.
One of the tallest trees next to the house was filled with red beams of light, and skeletons were placed around and under these lights.
The smoke stack of the mill was also illuminated with cobwebs.
The skeleton theme continued with bones scattered around a graveyard. It was very spooky.
Across the small river were some friendly settings with pumpkins and scarecrows.
Next up was the spider scenes with cobweb illuminations on the side of the mill.
And a spider tunnel.
Just after the spider tunnel was an area where a performer was showcasing various tricks with fire. This was fun to watch, but it did get very busy.
After that, we headed into the mill and wandered a couple of floors. There were "ghosts" around this area.
On the walk back up the hill, more skeletons in cages (a form of punishment) were hanging.
I enjoyed the visit to Quarry Bank and the Halloween trail. The only issue we had was that the street performer area was too busy, and the food is nearly at the end of the trail, but they were out of hot chocolate (and it was only one vendor selling hot chocolate). This whole area was too busy, and I think it would have benefit with more food areas, fire pits, and space.
Leave a comment