Bartimaeus

When we reached the Harecastle Tunnel entrance, we had a tough time mooring. We had to wait for another boat to exit that was coming towards us, but the volunteer told Shane there was an exhibition on this week only. The tunnel had been renamed the Scarecastle Tunnel.

Bryn and I went to look. It involved going up and down steps that went behind the entrance and over the top of the tunnel to the other side. I haven't been there before. We ignored the large 'keep out' sign. There weren't any barriers.

People on boat trips clearly get kitted out at the gazebos into life jackets. The area was decorated with bats, spiders and webs. Off to the side was a graveyard with local characters' graves. I recognised the name Christina Collins.

Also nearby was a gibbet with a life size skeleton hanging there. This skeleton was named after the two boatmen convicted of raping and murdering her and hanged. Most Halloween displays are not so closely modelled on real life.

Other canal related names appeared on grave stones. I knew Thomas Telford and James Brindley, but others were new to me: Henry Henshall who was the engineer responsible for the Harecastle tunnel. This was an educational Halloween display, with a spot of poetry. James seemed to be emerging from his grave.

One other local character was a local woman Molly Leigh, believed to be a witch with a black crow as her familiar. Her grave was guarded. It is said that if you dance on her grave saying "Molly Leigh, Molly Leigh, you can't catch me", she will appear!

The capsized canoes looked particularly imaginative and up to date with skeletons trying to cling on to their canoes. Presumably these aren't based on local residents - if they were, then it isn't a great advert for their life jackets.

We walked past a cage with skeleton dogs chewing hands and went through to some shacks that were selling food and drinks. We passed a model witch, another advert that wouldn't encourage me to try her beverage. Bryn wasn't put off by the spooky sales pitch on that particular one and decided he would like to try the strawberry flavoured drink, as he hadn't tried that variety. You know when you've been strawberry tangoed. I hope Bryn doesn't get turned into this after drinking it.

There was a display that looked more standard. I wanted a picture of the giant deckchair and asked Bryn to pose for scale. The Harecastle tunnel is big right enough.

A volunteer encouraged us to try the big chair, saying it was easy to get in but hard to get out. I jibbed but Bryn was willing to try it out. He was able to get out very easily. He is taller and probably nimbler than the guy who spoke to us. I might have been stuck if I had tried, and wasn't prepared to try and see. Bryn was totally relaxed though.

I looked round the end of the tent and saw that I had missed a spook looking out of the window above the Scarecastle Tunnel. Was it there before? 

We headed back as it might soon be time to enter the tunnel. Back by the boat we saw the other boat emerge from the tunnel. They were having difficulty controlling their boat in the wind, as we had done, trying to moor. They managed to get past us, and we waited for the all clear from the staff. He waved us on.

As we went past him I asked if it was going to be like a ghost train ride and he smirked. There was a skeleton at the side as we entered but no jump scares on the way through, at least not spooky ones, just surprise drips of water on us in the dark, and there were changes in tunnel profile but they were well highlighted in white or fluorescent paint. Some people find this tunnel particularly scary because the doors close behind you and loud fans roar.

As we  approached the end I could see someone looking in to check our progress, and as we emerged I handed back the air horn they had lent us to him. We didn't need it fortunately. He closed the tunnel and headed back to their office building and I saw they had another skeleton on display.

We had lunch just past the entrance to the closed Macclesfield canal. I saw some strange stone figures out the window so on the way back from the shops Bryn and I went to look. It wasn't on the road by the canal but at the gate posts of a house. These weren't a seasonal scare, but a year-round decoration.

When we were setting off, I drove into the nearby lock. Shane was standing by to close the gate and I saw another spooky sign beside him. I wasn't sure how temporary this one was. It had a tunnel so the bat is probably flying from it. The Scarecastle Tunnel likes being spooky.