Bath’s Botanical Gardens in Royal Victoria Park were lit up by torchlight last week for an evening of fun, with around 300 members of the public gathering to take part in a range of activities with a Halloween theme.
Ghosts gathered in the trees, cobwebs covered the bushes, fog fell across the ponds and skeletons smiled from their hideouts.
Even the Man’s Hand in Nature tree sculpture’s eyes were lit to give a sense that someone or something was watching.
Martin Veal, Bath and North East Somerset Council Cabinet member for Community Services said: “This was a hugely successful event during the half term holiday with over 300 people joining in the spooky activities.
“Comments included ‘I love the ghosts, how long will they be here’ and ‘this is great, I never would have thought to come to the park in the dark’.
“During the winter months, people often don’t think to use parks and open spaces for activities and we wanted to show that they can be fun all year round.
“I am hoping that the success of the event this year will mean it can become a regular feature on our events calendar.”
The Bath Area Play Project provided activities including making glow in the dark jars, creating fake wounds and delving into buckets of repulsive textures.
Bat detection devices were used by the Council’s Ecology Team to show families the bats flying over the surface of a pond in torchlight.