Halloween Post: Witch Corner and the Halloween Trail at Abbotsford, Scotland

Abbotsford was the home of Sir Walter Scott, writer of such classics as Waverley and Ivanhoe. I’ll have much more to say about the house and gardens later, but in the grounds of the house they’ve created Witch Corner, an interactive story trail inspired by the writings and research of Scott who was particularly interested in Scottish folktales. In fact Witch Corner takes its name from Scott’s nickname for the section of his library that contains 250 rare books about witchcraft, folklore and superstition.

Unsurprisingly the trail was slightly geared towards children – there was a question sheet for kids to solve riddles along the way with a chocolate to be won at the end – but it was a fun trail for adults too. The trail is ticketed – £5.50 for an adult – and you need to get an entry code to the door at the beginning of the trail from either the shop or the costumed performer at the entrance to the trail.

There were some fun sculptures along the winding trail that took around an hour or so to complete with motion activated sensors so sometimes there was witches cackling and other times creatures giving you clues to the quiz – such as below.

I really enjoyed this rather well done ghost ship with accompanying sounds of the sea.

I also enjoyed the three witches (very the Scottish play) cooking up nefarious meals in their cauldron – as you got closer the contents of the cauldron could be heard bubbling away.

And there was also this intricately carved throne of the elf king. The elf king Laurin is protective of his rose garden and giants are guarding them for him, as well as his throne. If any human sits down, they’ll be spirited away to the land of the fairies.

The goblin sculptures were also quite fun, all of them with different expressions. I suppose they’re supposed to be scary, but I found them to be quite cute!

The walk is quite pleasant with well laid out paths though they can get quite steep in places.

There wasn’t really anything too creepy on the trail though this stag and rider were well done and this witch at the end of the trail did move about with flashing red eyes and cackled as you walked by.

The Halloween event is over now but the Witch Corner and it’s sculptures are still there and will have a Christmas theme from 1 December.