As Halloween creeps closer, Stuart Macbeth braves a terror tour at Oxford Castle as spooks set out to scare punters

I wear a white sheet over my head with two holes poked out for eyes. A fangless pumpkin stares out of the window, frightening no one, while its insides spill out of the food waste bin.

All this effort and Halloween at home still is not cutting it. So where better to drag myself than Ghost Fest at Oxford Castle Unlocked?

Between now and the end of November, the footfall of many a costumed ghoul will reverberate along these dimly lit corridors.

Among the attractions are the venue’s Terror Tuesdays, held every Tuesday evening. Witless punters are led through the venue by a ghost who seeks assistance in locating her lost child.

There is light hearted banter at first. But in the ensuing mayhem actors, smoke machines, strobe lighting and fearsome smells see you visitors squeeze through the claustrophobic corridors of the former HM Prison Oxford. And the nervous laughs turn to hearty screams.

Let it be noted these are not the screams of tots on the fairground ghost train, but of fully-grown adults who really ought to know better.

Follow up with a stiff drink and it is the perfect fright night for the deeply unhinged, worth a thousand Hollywood slasher movies. The faint of heart may prefer the more sedate ‘Spooky Tours’ which run every half an hour on Thursdays. Here a supernaturally clad tour guide will regale sinister tales of phantoms from centuries past. Equally sedate is the Victorian Murder Mystery Tour, a fun and intriguing night where you play a detective in search of clues, interrogating the castle’s creepiest inhabitants.

For genuine encounters with the supernatural most weekends will offer ghost hunts and paranormal experiments, guided by Nottingham-based company Haunted Happenings.

You may not believe in ghosts as I do, and think this all a bundle of superstitious claptrap. But I defy anyone to stand in pitch darkness in the castle’s 11th century crypt in the early hours of the morning, and not feel a tingle in your spine as your hosts summon the spirits of the dead.

With state-of-the-art equipment including K2 meters and REM pods you can experience table turning and ouija boards in action, courtesy of your experts who have learnt their trade as far a field as Transylvania. More late night thrills and spills than any Friday on Park End Street.

For families with little ones there are delightful Trick or Treat evenings on Friday, October 30, through to November 1st where you can dress up in your best Halloween costume and frolic through the castle’s prison wing, knocking cell doors and rubbing shoulders with more infant friendly spooks.

Children also receive half price entry from this Saturday until November 1 when you book tickets through the Oxford Castle Unlocked website.

The castle’s promotions executive Ellie Morgan has helped to devise many of the events. She had told me on the phone “depending on which event you attend, you will either leave with a better understanding of the spookier side of the castle site from our spooky tours, or with a bag of sweets from our trick or treat, or you may end up terrified to the core!”

I have never met her in person but I am so haunted by my visit that I will now permanently imagine Ellie floating several feet off the ground, waving her severed head out of the window at passing tourists.

The team at Oxford Castle Unlocked deserve special praise for the way in which the hive of ghostly activities surrounding Hallowe’en will bring the castle’s history back to life, with such imaginative flair.

Now it is time for me to throw this fangless pumpkin in the bin and plan my next extraordinary visit.