Haunted Coasts and Autumn Adventures in England

Hartlepool Restaurant Week, Saltburn’s new food market, Headland Folkfest and a spine-chilling Halloween experience, the Tees Valley coast offers every reason to visit this autumn.

Food lovers are in for a treat during Hartlepool Restaurant Week, running from Monday 19th to Sunday 25th October. The event showcases an array of fantastic restaurants, cosy pubs and stylish cafés, serving everything from hearty comfort food to contemporary cuisine. Whatever you're craving, there's something to satisfy every appetite. 

Milton Street Market is Saltburn's exciting new destination for food and drink. Set within a beautifully restored church, the market brings together four vibrant kitchen concepts serving mouthwatering street food, alongside a central bar, all within one incredible shared space. 

The venue carefully honours its heritage while creating something entirely new for Saltburn, preserving stunning stained-glass windows, impressive stone arches, and many of the building's original features. The result is a unique setting where great food, drinks, and atmosphere come together.  

But the Tees Valley coast is also awash with spooky tales, the perfect location for Halloween fun. Discover the Legend of St Hilda of Hartlepool, the influential 7th-century abbess who led the early monastery on the Headland before going on to establish renowned Whitby Abbey. Local folklore tells of seabirds dipping their wings in tribute to her as they fly over St Hilda's Church, keeping her legacy alive along the coastline. With its rich heritage and wealth of historic buildings, the Headland also provides the perfect setting for ghost walks, which take place throughout October in the lead-up to Halloween. 

Or explore outdoors and explore part of Saltburn’s Langbaurgh Loop, a long distance 38-mile circular walking  trail eclipsing spectacular scenery, sandy coastal paths, cliff edges, rugged moorland, pine forests and accident woods. Walk from Saltburn heading down the coast to Skinningrove before turning back inland towards Loftus and the North York Moors National Park taking on Guisborough Forest, Roseberry Topping and Eston Nab.  

Folk music lovers should head to Hartlepool’s Headland FolkFest, running from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th October bringing together talented folk musicians and performers from across the region in the unique historic setting of the Headland. 

But for the ultimate spine-chilling scare, visit Redcar’s Scream Factory, the North East’s first Halloween attraction, voted Best UK Scare Event in 2024. It promises unforgettable Halloween Horror as visitors journey through haunted attractions filled with terrifying scares and chilling effects.  Prepare to be unnerved at the Children’s Twilight Tour, Teen Tour and Extreme Tour at selected dates from 2 to 31 October. 

Discover Lancashire’s witch trials, the ghosts of Morecambe’s Winter Gardens and tales of sunken villages, where fisherman still claim to hear the villagers’ eerie cries 

Whilst many people are familiar with the Salem Witch Trials in America, fewer know that England had its own series of witch trials, the most well-known and documented of which took place in Lancashire in North West England.  

The Pendle Witch Trials of 1612 saw the trial of 12 people from the Pendle Hill area of the county. Whilst Pendle Hill is very much an inland location, the 12 accused walked 40 miles to the city of Lancaster to be tried and subsequently 10 of the poor souls were executed.  

The historic city of Lancaster, sitting on the estuary of the River Lune, just a few miles from Morecambe, offers an incredible insight into the accused, with visitors able to take a tour of Lancaster Castle where they were trialled and held. The tour unfolds the details of both the trials and those accused, there’s even the chance to get locked inside a medieval jail cell.  

The Morecambe Bay area is home to a series of ghostly sightings too, Morecambe Winter Garden’s spooky past resulted in it appearing on the hit TV Show Most Haunted. It is said that stones have been thrown beneath the stage, footsteps heard on gravel and shadows seen moving around on the upper balcony. Folk say they have felt a ghostly presence hitting, pushing or poking them and more as they wait in the wings at the side of the stage too. The Winter Gardens is open for events and historical building tours as standard, but external companies also offer occasional ghost tours.  

And the spooky stories don’t stop there on Lancashire's coast. To this day, a young bride called Matilda who drowned herself on her wedding day is said to be seen running through the marshes surrounding Bolton Le Sands.  

There are also two stories of sunken villages close to Blackpool. The first, Singleton Thorpe, is located off the coast of Cleveleys with evidence suggesting that the village was sunken due to a sudden eruption of the sea around 1554; the second Kilgrimol disappeared during the 1400s, with differing suggestions as to whether it lay off the coast of Lytham St Annes, or on ground now used for St Annes Golf Course. Ghostly tales of the lost villages remain very alive today, fishermen swear they have heard cries of people when they’ve been out on boats off the coast of both towns.  

Explore the North West Coast.

The Great Waterfront City of Portsmouth is no less haunted.  

Wymering Manor is not only the city’s oldest building but also its most haunted with 20 ghosts said to haunt the building. 

Visit Red Sauce Theatre on 31 October for Horrible Historical Halloween, an immersive family storytelling experience. Step inside the atmospheric Victorian surroundings of Treadgolds where Rachella brings to life the true story of Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War through storytelling, performing and eerie large-scale Victorian puppets. 

Then discover Mary Seacole and her remedies during the Crimean War, children can create their own imaginative magic potion to take away.  Visit Rachella’s Fortune Telling Booth for a playful glimpse into what the future might hold. 

The event transforms Treadgolds into an imaginative Victorian world where children can learn the local history and heritage through play, performance and discovery.