Halloween House – here to scare you

Edinburgh’s spookiest Halloween house will greet guisers on Thursday night with a spooktacular array of ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, flying witches.. and Harry Potter characters.

Siblings Ruth Williamson and Ian Briars have spent thousands of pounds over the years adding new props for their garden in North Gyle Terrace, Corstorphine.

It takes them a week to arrange the hundreds of spooky objects into a Halloween spectacular that draws families from around the city.

Gutsy trick or treaters are welcomed with signs reading “Yes, the witch does live here” and “No trespassing, we’re tired of hiding the bodies”.

They must then negotiate a path through a graveyard scene including a real coffin and lifesize Dracula as well as hairy spiders, witches on broomsticks, flying ghosts and skeletons hiding in trees and bushes.

The display also includes the three witches from Macbeth and lifesize characters from the Harry Potter movies and Ghostbusters — lit up in lights.

There is a bowl of sweets for children and in return, many families leave a donation in a collection box for Sunny Harbour Cat and Kitten Rescue Centre in Lochgelly, Fife.

Ruth’s six real cats, which roam the garden, only add to the creepy atmosphere.

The carer, 69, said: “We do a Halloween garden every year. It takes nearly a week to put together but there’s nothing else like it in the area. This year we’ve had to expand up the side of the house.

“Families come from all over to see it and wander around. Others come in their cars just to take a picture.

“One of the signs says ‘no trespassing, we’re tired of hiding the bodies’ but everybody knows they are really very welcome.”

Ian, 55, who works as a landscape gardener at Heriot-Watt University, added: “It’s a big job putting it all up, especially with the high winds this year, but everybody who comes says it’s amazing.”