A Spooky Evening at Moors Valley Country Park’s Halloween Trail: A Review

If you're looking for a family-friendly Halloween experience that blends outdoor adventure with spine-tingling fun, Moors Valley Country Park’s brand new Halloween Trail is the perfect destination! We recently visited on opening night, and from the creative displays to the eerie ambiance, it offered the ideal blend of Halloween thrills without being too scary for younger visitors.

There are three different time slots to consider. Daylight - which is perfect for younger visitors, Twilight - the scare level ramps up a notch, and Moonlight - as scary as it gets but still suitable for all. 

We arrived for our Daylight slot at 5pm and we were guided towards the main carpark. Be prepared for the carpark to be very busy at peak times - you may end up in the overflow carpark so it would be wise to bring a torch.

Before you begin your journey into the forest, you can grab a bite to eat at one of the many food vendors. Our group had hog roast, burgers and hotdogs but there were plenty of choices including greek and waffles. Prices were to be expected but the portions were very generous, as demonstrated by the size of my daughters hotdog!

Hot dogs at Moors Valley Halloween

The Halloween Trail winds through part of the park’s vast woodland and takes between one to two hours to complete, depending on how long you linger at each stop. Visitors follow a mapped path, where they’re greeted by engaging characters, creepy props, and spooky sounds that set an eerie but enjoyable tone.

The sun was setting as we walked around and it made for a spooky backdrop to my photos, with the orange glow peeking through the trees. We took our time exploring and I appreciated booking the earlier time slot as it wasn't too busy. We were able to take lots of photos and never felt rushed. 

Headless Horseman - Moors Valley Halloween Trail

Midway round the trail, we found a small pitstop area where a pop up bar was selling amazing looking hot chocolates and spooky themed drinks. There was also Candy Cauldron where the kids bought apples dipped in freshly melted chocolate and covered with spooky sprinkles. Definitely a highlight of the evening for them!

Once the sun had set and darkness arrived, we saw the forest from a different perspective. It felt quite spooky and we wondered what (or who!) we would encounter at each twist and turn of the path. 

Family-Friendly Fun

The Moors Valley Halloween Trail is an excellent option for families with children. It avoids the extreme frights you’d find in a traditional haunted house, making it accessible for younger kids who want to join in on the Halloween fun. The interactive elements encourage exploration and curiosity, and the characters along the way are much more friendly than frightening.

If you’re a Halloween enthusiast hoping for something truly terrifying, you might find this experience more on the mild side. However, for a festive, spooky evening with the family, the Halloween Trail offers just the right balance.

Practical Tips

If you’re planning to visit, here are a few tips to make the most of your experience:

• October evenings can be chilly, so bundle up and wear comfortable walking shoes since you’ll be navigating forest paths.

• While some parts of the trail are lit, a torch can help you see the path clearly and add to the spooky fun.

• There are no toilets on the trail so make sure you use the ones in the event village before you begin

• Take your time and look up! There is lots to see on the trail and I'd recommend taking your time so you don't miss anything. We spent almost two hours on the trail from start to finish (including time eating chocolate apples 😀)

Halloween Trail by torchlight

Final Thoughts

The Moors Valley Country Park Halloween Trail is a delightful Halloween outing that families and kids of all ages can enjoy. It combines outdoor exploration with gentle frights and offers an experience filled with magic and creativity. 

Overall, it’s a fantastic seasonal experience for anyone looking to enjoy Halloween festivities without too many scares. Highly recommended for families and Halloween lovers who appreciate a blend of nature and enchantment with a spooky twist. 

The Halloween trail is running everyday until Sunday 3rd November with timed entry slots. For more information including ticket prices and booking information, check out the website here.

*Disclaimer - We were given tickets to the opening night in exchange for an honest review - we really loved it though and will definitely be returning next year! 

Looking back at our Halloween Half Term!

I had all good intentions of writing about Halloween straight after but as it often does, life got in the way and it's only now, two weeks later that I'm able to sit down and talk about what we got up!

Elliot had the week off pre-school as it was half term so we had lots of exciting things planned...and several different fancy dress costumes to wear!

On the Wednesday we met up with some of our close group of friends at one of our favourite places, Kingston Lacy. We all have National Trust memberships so it's always a nice cheap day out and the kids absolutely love it there! We took a picnic and did some Autumn crafts - my friend Louise also brought some print outs for the kids to do. This was a fantastic idea, they had to tick off certain items from their sheets and they all had different themed sheets such as fairies and pirates - they loved it!! All the activities were downloaded from https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/activities/ - we will definitely be doing this again :)

Later on that day I took Elliot to a local garden centre who were holding a special Halloween event for children. They had lots of things happening such as fancy dress competitions, spooky stories, pumpkin carving, spooky food and a scary tunnel. Elliot didn't win the fancy dress competition but there were over 40 kids in his age bracket so lots of competition and lots of little Dracs! The scary tunnel was actually really scary, we got about a foot inside and Elliot decided he didn't like it so we had to turn around and come out again....maybe one for the bigger kids! Although saying that my 29 year old sister was freaked out by someone dressed up as a zombie so she made a pretty hasty exit too!

Strutting his stuff on the catwalk!! 

On the Friday we hosted a little Halloween party for Elliot's friends - it's become a bit of a tradition  and we love hosting! It was a great excuse to decorate the house and of course, another excuse for Elliot to wear a different costume :)

It gets harder and harder to get a photo of all the children looking in the same direction!!

On the Sunday of Halloween weekend we couldn't decide what to do but Elliot wanted to visit Corfe Castle...even though he'd been there just a few days before with his grandparents! It's another brilliant National Trust property here in Dorset and we love visiting. There were lots of special activities on as it was half term, such as teddy zipline, spooky story telling and a Halloween themed quiz. 

Over the weekend we also managed to get a bit creative in the kitchen to make some spooky food thanks to a lovely hamper from the Co-op. Our favourite were the smores which were lovely big thick chocolate chip cookies with melted marshmallows and jam inside....yummy! To see some of the recipes head over to the Co-op website.

Finally on Halloween itself, I took Elliot trick or treating with one of his little friends. This is the first year he's really understood it and was so excited about getting some treats! We were planning on just knocking at a few houses we knew such as friends and family but on the way we spotted lots of houses decorated with pumpkins so we did spend a bit longer out than planned...both kids were sooo tired at the end of the evening!

Hope you all had a fun Halloween! 

Elliot's 3rd Birthday Celebrations

It seems only 5 minutes ago that I was writing about Elliot's 2nd birthday and his amazing Gruffalo Party but in the blink of an eye 12 months have passed and he is now 3 years old. 3 years old?! How did that happen!!

We decided to hire our local village hall for Elliot's birthday celebrations and he told me he wanted a "spooky" party. Fortunately his birthday is a few weeks after Halloween so I was able to get lots and lots of decorations and party bits when the Halloween stock hit the shops in September. I even managed to pick up some party bits whilst we were on holiday in Florida - the shops were full of amazing Halloween displays so I was spoilt for choice really! 

My family were on hand to help "spookify" the hall and they did a great job helping me set things up. We had a bouncy castle to entertain the kids and we laid out tables and chairs for the parents. All the tables had a spooky centrepiece such as skeleton bones or pumpkins and combined with fairy lights and curtains drawn, it gave a really spooky effect. Totally rubbish lighting for decent photos though!

My mum helped me with the party food and as usual we went abit overboard - I always worry we won't have enough so I tend to go in the opposite direction and we end up with way too much! All the food was renamed for spooky purposes, e.g dead man's fingers (cocktail sausages!) and witches wands (chocolate fingers). We also had an amazing birthday cake made by a great local company (Creative Cakes by Nicki) and this of course was fitting for the spooky theme!

It was a very manic day with around 30 kids plus parents coming along the party but Elliot had such a great time and he was absolutely knackered at the end of it. He had a 2.5 hour nap afterwards which is unheard of these days! 

For Elliot's actual birthday we didn't have too much planned because he had pre-school in the morning but he was up bright and early to unwrap his presents. Two of his presents came all the way from Walt Disney World and I'd managed to sneakily buy them on our last day at the parks when he wasn't with me. He couldn't wait to get the figures out of the box and was very excited to see them!

After school we went to my parents house for lunch and Elliot was absolutely spoilt with more presents. Mum and Dad bought him an easel which he loved! Another birthday cake (the third of the week!) and another chance to blow out the candles :)

In the afternoon my husband finished work early and we went to our local Smyths Toy Store - a new one has recently opened near to us so we were interested to see how they differed from Toys R Us. I was really impressed, lots of good value items and I even started my Christmas Shopping! We bought Elliot a Scooby Doo Haunted House as part of his birthday present - he's had his eye on one for ages so he was really happy :)

We ended the birthday celebrations with a meal at Frankie & Benny's which is one of our favourite restaurants to take Elliot to as it's very family friendly.

I think it's safe to say that Elliot enjoyed his birthday celebrations and he got so many lovely presents. I still can't believe he's 3!!