Halloween at Mercat Tours is not just a day. It is a four day long extravanganza which is a monster of proportions more terrifying than Frankenstein’s with teeth sharper than Jaws’ and involves more blood than Hannibal Lecter on a Friday night murder binge.
It’s our busiest time of the year, and an all-hands-to-the-pumps experience for all of our guides. But how do we prepare for the craziest time in our calendar? And what should you expect if you’re planning to pay us a visit this Halloween?
Busy busy busy
We’re running a jaw dropping 20+ tours this Halloween. They all undergo a seasonal makeover, which certainly keeps our guides on their toes! Not to worry though, at Mercat we have no 'jumper ooters' or theatrics both at the Mercat Cross or underground in the Blair Street Vaults. We also have no special lighting or speakers playing spooky sounds. Everything you see underground is authentic, it is a historical place after all!
However, just for Halloween we might just indulge in a few extra fear factors...you just never know what you might find waiting for at the end of your tour.
Cunning Disguises
It never takes much persuasion to get a Mercat guide to don a costume. Imaginations run wild at Halloween, with plenty of midnight oil being burned over mum’s old sewing machine, and hours being spent experimenting with theatrical make up (and that’s just the boys!). With many of our guides trying a new idea every year, you never know who or what you are going to bump into at the Mercat Cross!
Here's just a snippet of what you can expect for Halloween 2018 in our underground vaults:
What’s Your Poison?
Once a year a brew of a nature-most-secret appears in Blair Street: a potion of alarming potency and (possibly) mystical powers. Come along for our Sprits of Halloween tour and treat yourself to a glass of Bat’s Blood. Any urges to sleep dangling upside down from a rafter post tour are completely coincidental, or so I’ve been assured.
Not for the Faint Hearted
If coming on one of our day tours isn’t enough to satisfy your spooky appetites, how about spending the last hour of the day with us underground in the Blair Street Vaults? We will be running Haunted Halloween - The Midnight Hour, our adults only walking tour where you will get the opportunity to hear some of the goriest and most ghoulish stories while experiencing midnight underground in the Blair Street Vaults, if you dare! Definitely not one for the faint hearted.
Up Close
We are also running some special tours this Halloween!
First we have our Gory Stories - Halloween For Kids for those wee adventurers who are brave enough to explore the closes of the Old Town before heading underground.
If you prefer to conduct your adventuring through the roll of a dice, then our Halloween Games Night - Dungeons and Dragons is for you! Here you will be able to experience the Blair Street Vaults before heading to our underground candlelit Megget's Cellar where your expert storyteller will conduct a one off campaign. Perfect for complete beginners as well as experienced players.
We can't wait to unveil all our Halloween tours on our unsuspecting visitors - the countdown has well and truly begun!
Any other questions about our tours or the site? Head to our FAQs page.