Halloween weekend: a haunted road trip suggestion for brave Lancastrians

For something slightly different this Halloween, people in Lancashire could undertake a spooky North West road trip, which has already been pre-planned for them, and includes two stops in the county itself.

With Halloween falling on a weekend this year, Quality Source, an eco-friendly motorhome and vehicle battery specialist based in the UK, have created multiple haunted road trips for day-trippers looking for a paranormal weekend, with each one exploring the most haunted places within each region.

Quality Source searched Tripadvisor to find the spots where the most paranormal activity has been reported by visitors and then used the 15 top spots to design road trips across the country, with each route including stops, timings, mileage and scare levels.

According to Quality Source, their North West tour, called 'The Witch Hunt' is a 3 hour 30 minute drive in total, covering 136.58 miles, and showcases some of the most history-rich attractions in the region, at a scare level of 3/5.

Starting at 10 am, the first stop suggested in the North West is the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe, which is around a 90 minute drive from Preston and apparently offers tourists the chance to see six ghosts, including a small boy, a lady in white and a distraught ballet dancer that hung herself in the changing room.

For 12.30 pm, the schedule takes you to Preston's Samlesbury Hall, which, despite being a beautiful historic building, is said to be one of the most haunted locations in the country.

Resident spirits here include Dorothy Southworth, also known as the White Lady, who died of a broken heart and now reportedly wanders aimlessly around the hall and grounds.

Only an estimated 37 minute drive away is the third stop, with the schedule aiming to be at Pendle Hill in Clitheroe, Lancashire for 3:15 pm.

The vast landscape is home to the Pendle witches, who were executed for witchcraft in 1612 and reportedly still haunt the walkways.

The final stop in the North West is the The Black Swan Hotel in York, which will take you just under two hours from Pendle Hill and offers you an evening meal surrounded by a team of ghosts, including a young Victorian pickpocket called "Matthew".

Rowland King, Director at Quality Source which has 15 years of experience in the motor industry, said: “We’re all about encouraging people to feel confident on the road, enjoying road trips and getting out and exploring the nation, which is why we wanted to create the spookiest road trips possible to give people an exciting and haunting way to spend their Halloween in 2021.

"After the height of the pandemic, we’re all eager to get out there with friends and family and just celebrate and explore and these road trips are a great way to do that...if you can stomach them.”

The other 24 hour regional tours are for the North East, Midlands, and the South, with each trip exploring places with hundreds of reported ghost sightings and paranormal encounters.

The ultimate dark tourists could also combine the regional tours and undertake one mega 818-mile road trip instead.

Each road trip has been designed in an order that minimises the mileage between stops and the routes can be done in reverse depending on the choice of starting location.

The starting times for each itinerary are based on the opening times of each attraction according to their website.

For further details visit Quality Source's website.