Frightfully good breaks

If the most frightening thing for you about Halloween is how fast it has come around again, you're just not making the effort. SANDRA O'CONNELL rounds up a few tricks and treats to help plan a spooktastic break.

Wicked Wicklow

Wicklow town is set to reinvent itself this year as “Halloween Haven” with the pubs and restaurants on Market Square working together to scare the daylights out of visitors.

At the centre of events is Wicklow’s Historic Gaol, a regular feature of ghost-hunting TV shows and paranormal investigations.

The spooky season here kicks off on October 22nd with a variety of events, including a ghoulish hog roast, visiting psychics and tours of the dreaded dungeons. As well as hosting scary movie nights, there will be family-friendly ghost tours, from 7pm to 9pm, and not so family-friendly ghost tours on October 28th for over 18s only.

Ghostbusters will also be setting up shop at the gaol up until 3am on one occasion, but such is demand for this event you’ve only a ghost of a chance of getting in.

Accommodation:Wicklow's Grand Hotel (grandhotel.ie) is promising family fun throughout Halloween week with family rooms from €140.

Bunratty blues

Bunratty Castle and Folk Park is gearing up for its annual Halloween Horror party, which takes place on October 31st.

Visitors can check out the creepy crypt in the castle basement and follow it up with a wonderfully weird talking head, a showing of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and a Michael Jackson Thriller dance performance.

There’ll be prizes for the best fancy dress costume as well as a host of creepy crawlies – from tarantula spiders to snakes and scorpions – being specially brought in for the event.

Costumed members of Pre-History Music Ireland will be on hand to tell tales of yore plus traditional pursuits, such as apple snapping and coin bobbing. Family tickets start at €33.60.

Accommodation: stay two nights in nearby Adare Manor (adaremanor.com), including breakfast, one dinner, a supervised kids' movie night plus family admission to the Bunratty Halloween Party for €680.

Pumpkin party

Up to 20,000 revellers are expected to descend on Virginia, Co Cavan for its Pumpkin Festival (virginia.ie) over the October bank holiday weekend.

The lakeside town will be blacked out for the occasion and lit instead by carved and lighted pumpkins. It’s a weekend of street carnival, music, crafts and a monster fancy dress party with thousands involved.

Definitely more fun than freakish, there’s a farmers’ dance, The Waterboys in concert, and a heaviest pumpkin competition. To ensure everything ends with a bang, there’s a firework display on the shores of Lough Ramor too.

Accommodation:stay in Ross Castle (ross-castle.com) on the shores of Lough Sheelin – it's one of the most haunted places in Ireland. Just don't be surprised if an uninvited guest shows up. According to manager Bettina Walker, the Saturday night of Halloween weekend has been booked out by a paranormal investigation team. Still, if you go just after the midterm, it'll be all the quieter, and creepier!

Creepy Cork

Still on the ectoplasm trail, the 11th World Ghost Convention takes place in Cork Gaol on October 28th, with a panel of international guest speakers to discuss supernatural topics.

According to event organiser Catherine Courtney, the convention was established to allow people who have witnessed supernatural events to come forward and speak about them.

“Often people are too embarrassed or ashamed to tell others what they have seen. This convention gives them a forum for doing that,” says Courtney.

While you’re here, stay for the Dragon of Shandon Lantern Parade on the night of October 31st in Shandon for a celebration of the original Halloween, Samhain. There’ll be thousands on the streets, including Ireland’s last surviving dragon.

Accommodation:Base yourself at the Carlton Hotel (carlton.ie) to make the most of Kinsale's Halloween Festival, too, which includes a Freaky Friday pub crawl, Voodoo Walk and Monster Mash. Rooms start at €49 per person sharing that week, rising to €89 at the weekend.

Samhain spirits

Meath has successfully put itself on the tourist map at Halloween time on the basis that the Hill of Ward is the place where it all began.

The Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the old year and the beginning of the new, is said to have originated here. In recent times locals and visitors have taken to re-enacting the celebrations, starting with a torch procession up the hill.

While you’re there check out Farmaphobia at Causey Farm (causey.ie) nearby. A truly terrifying night out, the website is enough to give you the chills. The event brings you on a mock funeral cortege along the, wait for it, Bone Valley.

Run by the eerily nice Murtagh family, it features a house of horrors, a canyon of carnage and all sorts of equally alliterative mayhem from October 22nd to 31st.

Accommodation:doubles cost €69 a night at Newgrange Hotel (newgrangehotel.ie) in nearby Navan.

Hellish Hellfire

The Hellfire Club, high up in the Dublin mountains, has so many diabolical tales attached that it is spooky even in blazing sunshine. So how creepy must it be at night? Hidden Dublin Walks (hiddendublinwalks.ie) helps you find out, with special Hellfire Club tours this Halloween, departing Dublin at 7pm and priced at €23 per person.

Meet at the back of St Audeon’s Church, near Christchurch, to board a private bus which will get you some, but not all, of the way up to this shell of an 18th century hunting lodge.

It wasn’t always animals they were hunting either, apparently. Depending on who’s telling the tale, the devil himself appeared here, a waiter was set alight and a local woman was killed and, gulp, eaten. Amazingly, for such a spooky spot, it seems it’s only haunted by a cat. How scary can that be?

Accommodation:it'll be a relief to get back to civilisation afterwards so keep going till you reach the Castleknock Hotel (castleknockhotel.com) which is hosting a Halloween ball on October 30th, with packages including B&B and ball tickets from €79 per person sharing.

Themed terror

If you’re lucky enough to be heading to Orlando for mid-term, having a terrifying theme park experience is part of the attraction.

New this year is the Haunted House Experience at Universal Orlando, designed as a teaser for its latest cinema release The Thing.

The new haunted house provides a series of face-to-face encounters with “The Thing”, an alien creature that can transform itself into an exact replica of any living thing. Hate that.

Guaranteed to get your paranoid fantasies flowing, the aim is to have visitors experience the same terror that affects the film’s characters.

Accommodation: rooms start at $249 (€182) at Loews Royal Pacific hotel (loewshotels.com) at Universal resort.

Garden ghouls

Still in Florida, another option is Busch Gardens Tampa. On selected nights in October, it is running Howl-O-Scream evening events, with hordes of zombies parading the grounds.

Then there is Nevermore, a nightmare horror experience inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven. There’s an Ultimate Gamble vampire casino and Zombie Mortuary – a small town funeral home infested with un-dead.

Among the other treats is Alone, billed as a “personal horror experience” where guests enter the home of a deranged lunatic. In Nightshade Toy Factory twisted toys come to life while in The Doctor is out of Control, a demented doctor carries out the kind of ghastly experiments not covered by the VHI.

Accommodation: James Villas (jamesvillas.ie) has villa holidays for two adults and two children, including flights, from €3,375, departing October 26th.

Scarefest by sea

Closer to home, Alton Towers is one of the UK’s top theme parks and at this time of year is devoted to its Scarefest.

The park is transformed into something decidedly Transylvanian with such attractions as its Terror of the Towers, the Boiler House and the Carnival of Screams designed to put your pacemaker through its paces.

Most rides stay open until 9pm, which means you’re doing them in the dark too, for added fear.

Accommodation: Irish Ferries (irishferries.com) has two nights at the nearby Holiday Inn Express Hotel for two adults and two children under 12 for an all-in price of €396. This includes the ferry, breakfast at the hotel and a day at the theme park.

Ghost bus

Meanwhile, Belfast City Sightseeing has some terrifying tour options, including the Belfast Ghost Bus.

This provides a ramble around haunted Belfast and includes tales of the ghost of Tomb Street and the ghouls of Belfast City Hall, as well as stories about the gallows of High Street and Belfast’s Jack the Ripper connection.

Tours run from October 14th to 31st and depart three times a night, finishing up at the Dungeons of Terror, the first themed attraction in Belfast. Located on Royal Avenue, this little bundle of fear features such gems as the Chainsaw Madman, the Basement of Horror and Doctor Payne.

If you’re in Belfast on October 30th, the Metro Monster Mash is a free family event at the Odyssey that afternoon with fancy dress, music, dancing and a fireworks display at 6pm.

Accommodation:the Holiday Inn (holidayinn.com) nearby has a family fun package weekend break for two adults and two children sharing, including breakfast and one dinner, plus a family pass for W5, the science-based visitor centre for kids at the Odyssey Arena. Prices start at £115 (€131) per adult.