The Hellfire Caves Review (2026)

The website for The Hellfire Caves is comprehensive and includes information on the variety of events the site offers, including their Fright Night event. Once nearing the attraction there is signage directing you towards the car park, and while we were unsure of parking costs the security guard attending the park helped us out and informed us there was no cost at the time of our attendance. When arriving at the caves, a masked guide greets you upon entry and even one of the ticket takers was masked as a baboon (referencing the famous “devilish baboon” of the cave’s history)!

We didn’t have to wait long for our slot, but there is some music and decor around the entrance/exit, including a period-appropriate guillotine photo-op and some skeletons in cages to keep you entertained. There is also a small bar which one can indulge in either pre- or post event. Despite all these lovely touches, however, our experience did suffer a bit from misbehaviour from others in our batch. While supposedly being a 16+ event there were quite visibly younger children in our group who often disrupted the more atmospheric moments, as well as a rowdy group of young teenagers with a minder who shouted a lot at the actors (who, to their credit, stayed in character). Additionally, audiences are told phone lights can be used to help guide in the cave, and they are instructed to keep them pointed to the ground at all times. This is the first time we’ve heard torches were allowed in our years attending this event, and unfortunately an adult couple with us shone theirs in every nook and cranny during our visit. This event relies a lot upon the deeply eerie and dim ambiance of the caves to pull off the experience, so we’d hope in the future audiences could be instructed to be better behaved by security inside.

Audience behaviour aside, there was still an incredible immersive atmosphere in The Hellfire Caves. The entrance with its guillotine, caged skeletons, red lighting and music set the tone for the experience, and the actor at the beginning of the show (who we remember from last year) was brilliant in setting the tone in his period costume and story regarding the dark history of the caves and the characters that might still reside within. The passionate and historical narrative at the beginning created a great start to this frightful journey, and was extremely well delivered. There were also a variety of other characters within the haunt that were clearly there to help guide the storytelling, but their function was sometimes unclear. While associated with the caves, it was still a little confusing as to what story was actually being told. Fortunately we are both well versed in the history of the caves, but the meaning of 18th century gentleman shouting at us and the various maid-looking women we encountered along the way, were all a little ambiguous.

While special effects at Hellfire Caves are a bit simpler, they are still effective for the space they are set in. The ominous music is deep and rumbling, creating a foreboding atmosphere as you plunge deeper and deeper into the heart of the caves. We always enjoy the vignettes behind the various barred-off areas, especially the skeletal props in ‘The River Styx’, and this year they kept other scenes on theme with mannequins in vintage costumes. These vignettes and the rest of the caves were lit up with a low pulsing red light, which we thought very effective and particularly creepy. In the introduction of the event audiences are welcomed to use torches to light up the floor if required, but we personally feel that the red strobing and the various lit lanterns and candles throughout the attraction provide more than adequate lighting for the experience, and rather wish that phone torches weren’t allowed.

We encountered a variety of different characters during our journey into the darkness, including a wolf-like beast who bounded towards us with evil intentions, hooded cult figures who surrounded us on all sides, maids who stood silent against the pulsing red strobes, malicious 18th century gentlemen and a variety of eerie women in black. Some of these characters were more interactive than others, with a young girl being particularly memorable for her fun improvisational skills as she engaged us for quite a lengthy period about a party we were about to attend. We also encountered a woman in black in the inner sanctum who was supposedly there to be sacrificed (although we felt like we required a bit more narrative here), while 18th century gentlemen we came across sometimes blocked our paths or yelled at us to get out. The actors, whose costumes evoked the 18th century, were decked out in deadly ghostly makeup, and all created quite a tense and dark atmosphere as they approached and interrogated us throughout the caves.

There were a variety of scare tactics used by the actors we encountered, but the most successful were those that were more atmospheric and menacing, those which gave us a morsel of safety before turning on us in unsettling ways. Unfortunately some of the spaces with the actors were just a little too dark to see their faces, so at some points it was a little difficult to get the most out of the interactions. There is a large central hub as you get approximately halfway through the caves, and we thought this space was used particularly effectively this year, with silent women in white standing at various points in a circle around graves as red light shone from all sides. Creepy hooded figures joined them at times in this space, and we feel the best part of this experience was when all these characters were surrounding you from all sides, which was very scary indeed! As we came near to the exit, an actor locked one of the barred doors, stopping us from leaving. We also enjoyed an interaction with three actors near the end of our experience, who surrounded us while asking why we were there and announced that we were to be sacrificed – before abruptly yelling at us to get out.

With a ticket price of £20 and a walkthrough time of roughly twenty-five minutes, this experience is of pretty good value. When we’ve attended in the past we’ve felt as if we could wander around for as long as we wanted, and we’ve often done that, wandering around every nook and cranny making sure we never missed anything, often benefitting from really interesting interactions with the fiendish characters below. This time, however, there was a bit of a different feeling in the caves, with actors encouraging us (in character of course!) to get out. This, paired with misbehaviour from many of the audience in our batch didn’t make us feel like we wanted to stay as long, which is unfortunate as the caves were missing just a tiny bit of their highly immersive atmosphere they usually have. Nevertheless, we spent a significant amount of time here, and really enjoy how unique of an experience it is. The caves are the perfect atmosphere for a spooky event, and we’d hope to see these pop up even more so in the future (we’d love to see a scary reskin of their Christmas grotto events!).