Bodmin Jail Halloween: the gallows, the ghosts and a night inside

Some buildings barely need dressing up for Halloween. A Georgian jail where the gallows once stood is one of them. And this October, it isn’t holding back.

From this Thursday (1 October), Halloween takes over Bodmin Jail, with events running right through to Saturday 31 October. Some are included in a standard Jail Entry ticket. Others only begin once the daytime visitors have gone home.

The jail says there will be something to discover around every corner.

The Haunted Gallery returns

The Haunted Gallery is back for October, a Halloween exhibition woven into the usual visit. Atmospheric displays and stories are set out along the way, inviting visitors to discover another side of the jail.

It runs from 1 to 31 October and is included with Jail Entry. The jail pitches it at families with teenagers and older children, and at groups of friends, with plenty to look out for on the way round.

A Trick or Treat Trail for younger visitors

For smaller visitors, the Trick or Treat Activity Trail opens on Saturday 17 October and runs every day until 31 October.

Families follow the trail as they explore the jail, with Halloween games, puzzles to solve and prizes to be won along the way. It is also included with Jail Entry, so a single visit in the second half of the month covers both the trail and the Haunted Gallery.

Go Darker guided tours

Throughout October, the jail’s usual guided tour is being replaced by a limited edition Halloween version called Go Darker.

Led by one of the jail’s award-winning Heritage Guides, the tour looks at crime and punishment in Georgian and Victorian England, from the harsh laws of the time to what happened once a sentence had been passed.

Expect tales of the gallows, the gibbet cage and the so-called resurrection men, and how justice once worked both inside and beyond the jail’s walls.

Late Entry and after dark

For anyone who wants to see the jail in a different light, Late Entry runs from Monday 19 October to 31 October, allowing visits later in the day.

Then, when the doors close to daytime visitors, the programme carries on. There’s a guided Ghost Walk and an After Dark Investigation.

Tickets for all of the Halloween events are available through the Bodmin Jail Halloween booking page.

And for those who would rather not leave at all, there’s the Overnight Sleepover, a night spent inside the jail itself.