Located in the South of Wales, Fonmon Castle is a Middle Ages fortification with beautiful extensive grounds surrounding it, normally host to Jurassic Wales, a medieval grange, a folklore trail, archery activities and more. During the Halloween season, the site undergoes a complete transformation, with spooky decorations taking over every part of the grounds, pumpkins and skeletons galore, and a few extra spooktacular activities meant for all the family. We visited for the first time this year for their Scare Run, billed as a trail of ten different zones, which guests can experience an unlimited number of times throughout the night. Utilising the lovely trails around the castle grounds, this gorgeous and atmospheric Scare Run offered a unique take on frights this Halloween season.
The cast were quite varied in this Scare Run, with different characters throughout each of the zones, from clowns who ranged from happy to terrifying, to an inmate of an asylum, and to a man who hit us with bloodied body parts. While the level of interactions and physicality varied with these creatures, most attempted to either startle or stalk us. We would have loved to see a few more actors throughout the run, as we seemed to have missed any interaction in the spider’s lair. Yet, the cast made good use of the spaces around them, often utilizing the hoardings and trees to be able to surprise us more than once, appearing and disappearing with ease.
We also loved the roaming actors on the site. Although they weren’t specifically for the Scare Run itself, they were some really fun characters, especially an actor who embodied Beetlejuice from head to toe in look, mannerisms and speech – definitely the best Beetlejuice impersonator we’ve ever come across.
Costumes, makeup and masks were quite strong on this scare trail, with some great looks at the beginning of the experience with the clowns and then again at the end with menacing men in gas masks and a terrifying bagged head man with a chainsaw. One of the tall clowns had a really fun costume with bloomers, and her makeup was excellently applied with a sinister black smile. A two-headed clown also stalked us on this trail, which was a look we’ve never seen in a haunt before. Other characters of note were the brides, one in full white and one in full black, whose veils obscured their faces until they started screaming and stalking us. The strongest character aesthetic of the night was a wolf that bounded towards us from the shadows in a head to toe look that was uniquely realistic, not to mention frightening when it came from out of nowhere and then kept following us.
Finding Fonmon Castle was really easy, with signage upon entry and then down to the parking area. The staff were also all lovely, from the ticket taker at the front to the roaming actors, to all of the staff manning the different areas throughout, including archery stations and story trails. Our only feedback would be that we would have loved a bit more information on the website regarding the Scare Run and the other attractions on offer. They do provide a list of experiences, and we did know that the Scare Run would incorporate different zones, but it would be good to differentiate slightly between the adult-oriented Scare Run and the more all-ages thrills. However, the fact that this event was a bit more family-friendly really didn’t take away from the terrors of the Scare Run, and we were actually quite happy with the joy and respite it provided.
The pre-haunt atmosphere at Fonmon Castle starts immediately upon driving onto the grounds, with a creepy creature opening the gates to allow guests to park up. There were roaming actors all around the property as well, who were all lovely but did offer frights to those who were older. But the entry to the Scare Run itself could do with a bit more immersiveness. Other than some decorated hoardings, there wasn’t a ton to announce the beginning of the scare trail. However, there was a really fun reskin of one of the dinosaur exhibits, with skeletons strung up in between the large beasts. The same can be said of the exit to the maze, which drops you to another area on the site near some more dinos, and also near a photography studio where you can see manipulated photos of yourself in all sorts of horrific scenes!
The batching at the Scare Run is really well done, with individual groups let in together without anyone else joining, meaning it’s a very intimate and immersive experience for all involved. We didn’t come across any other groups on our journey, showing the timing between groups was perfect, and allowed for the best experience of the run.
This was a rather stripped back event, with quite a few of the areas relying mostly on decorated hoardings that created the structure of the trail and mini-mazes with plastic strips, caution tape and bloodied fabric hanging down. However, some zones had lovely little thematic vignettes, such as a web-covered spider’s lair and a hillbilly’s hideout with banjo music playing in the background. Most of the areas did have their own unique sound design, which was really refreshing. Lighting was also well done along the trail, especially with the bigger spaces which utilised the beauty of the site around them in lovely site-specific ways.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 7
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 10
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 8
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 7
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 8
We were startled quite a bit with this experience, especially due to the creepy atmosphere of the woods surrounding the trail, which automatically lent an air of mystery and fear of the unknown. Characters popped out from behind hoardings and trees, with some of the best scares from the night from the werewolf emerging from nowhere and stalking us until we left his zone of terror.
The clowns had the best strategies for scares that night, with a tall female clown starting to play hide and seek, revealing herself and then disappearing in front of us. This distracted us from the first attack of a double headed clown, who then seemingly appeared out of thin air. Afterwards the original clown appeared again, only to manipulate and distract us one more time, making way for the final scare from the double headed clown at the end of the circus zone.
We also loved the finale scare at the very end of the maze, when two gas masked men chased us into a deranged killer, who then chased us all the way out of the maze, his chainsaw raised high above his head.
With a walkthrough time of around nine minutes, and a ticket price of £15, at first blush this might seem like a bit of a steep price tag for a rather short Scare Run. However, the experience at Fonmon Castle is not solely the Scare Run, but is actually a more full-family event that spans the whole site, brimming with different characters to meet and areas to explore. Our favourite bits of the night other than the Scare Run were numerous light trails along the site, especially the skeleton garden with dozens of skeletons posed in all sorts of humorous manners, from having a picnic to flying in midair to catch a pumpkin, and even a skeleton mid-proposal to one of the garden statues. We toured around a garden of dinosaurs, were invited to a bit of archery, and even visited Beetlejuice’s castle. All of the buildings and grounds were decorated from top to bottom, with no stone left unturned. Granted, most of these activities are for kids, including a live music show, but really the entire night can be enjoyed by all ages, and all in all it’s a super lovely and beautiful event. It’s a nice change from some of the chaotic scare parks we’ve attended, and we highly recommend the night out for everyone in the family (especially if the adults want a real scream, whilst the kids have a play)!
Fonmon, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, Barry, United Kingdom CF62 3ZN
