Halloween at Quarry Bank Mill Review

DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW

Reviewed by H Chan

We love National Trust, and we love Autumn events, especially at half term when the kids are off school and looking for something to do. This event was just right for an evening out with the littles.

Quarry Bank Mill is a great place to visit. We’ve visited before in the day and the estate is simply beautiful in the Autumn! The gardens are so lovely to walk around and there’s always something going on. The Mill itself is eye opening, it’s hard to imagine some aspects of history until you actually visit a place like this. Even without an event, I do recommend a visit.

The Mill closes at 4pm, and over half term will be open in the evenings for a special Halloween event. You can choose to go in the daylight, with times beginning at 4pm, twilight with times beginning at 5pm and moonlight, with time slots beginning at 6pm. We were offered a 5.15pm timeslot, so when we arrived it was still very bright outside but by the time we’d had gone most of the way around, it was dark, so we had the best of both worlds really.

I took two of my children, my 12 year old daughter and my 9 year old son. My son found some parts a little creepy, for example inside the Mill itself, but otherwise it’s all family friendly and nothing too scary. If you have older children, then I recommend going when it’s become a little darker. The whole atmosphere of creepiness and excitement was taken up a notch as soon as it went dark.

There was a bit of a queue for the car park, which we expected, but after that we got through fine. Outside the entrance, there were a few cabins selling snacks and hot drinks which will be brilliant as the temperature begins to drop.

Once inside, the whole thing took about an hour and a half to walk around. It was still light, so we could see where we were going in the garden, and my wheelchair using daughter didn’t have any trouble at all navigating the route. It’s also buggy friendly. There were some great displays, but the highlight was the fire dancers. The shows are very regular and last up to ten minutes, so if you get to a show and can’t quite see, then there will be another show soon after and everyone moves along. After the fire dancers is a little row of cabins selling Greek food, churros, other snacks like chips and a hot drinks cabin. There is also a cabin selling marshmallows for £2 each which you can then roast on fire pits opposite. It was quite busy in this area and nowhere to sit, unless you head behind the stalls where there are some picnic tables on the lawns. This meant that people were blocking this area eating where they could see (when it went dark) it was all good though, as we purchased some snacks and found a picnic bench on the grass out of the way and then re-joined the walk. The prices are similar to those you’d expect at such events, a box of 8 fresh churros was £8, for example, but my children said they were very yummy!

The event takes you through the Mill, which is so creepy in the dark. There were some character actors walking around which adds to the atmosphere, I’d have liked to have seen more of these as they really did add to the experience. A lovely older gentleman helped us access the mill in the assistance lift, he also stopped the flow of people for us so that my daughter could get down a narrow corridor, I think he made her night with his kindness, which is exactly how the staff are here.

On our way out, we saw that the queue for the car park was all the way down the lane and even past the junction, once in the line there is nowhere to go and very limited parking. If local I recommend walking, but otherwise they do recommend leaving with plenty of time to park. They really do mean it, that queue was insane, but it was opening night so it was expected to be busier than usual. There was plenty of accessible parking available though.

We give the event 4½ stars out of 5. It’s a fantastic length for younger ones, but if taking a family then the prices are a little on the high side for the length of the event. However, I would still recommend going as long as you’re not expecting it to be lengthy. Even though it’s great for younger ones, I think my eldest (15) wouldn’t have got as much out of it.

You can find tickets at www.nationaltrust.org.uk priced at £14 per child aged 3 to 16, and £18 for over 16s. Carers and under 3’s are free. I do like that they have offered a friends link this time too, so if you book your tickets and want to go at the same time as friends, you can reserve their tickets for a short length of time and send them a purchase link. This ensures that you are in the same group. They also offer a family ticket for £61.
The event runs from October 25th to November 3rd so it’s perfect for a Halloween trip out.

Rating: 4.5/5