Over 350 adults and children enjoyed the Scottish Maritime Museum’s popular annual Halloween event on Saturday 30 October and helped raise £812 for charity.

As well as enjoying a ghoulish Monster Trail, creepy ‘Make and Take’ crafting and a costume competition, visitors watched Robert McLeod, Chair of the British Society of Scientific Glassblowers, create handblown miniature Halloween pumpkins.

The mini pumpkins, with their withering leaves, spooky faces and ghastly grins, were on sale in the Museum Gift Shops during the event with 100% of the proceeds going to charity.

Fifty percent of the money, £406, raised now goes to Ayrshire-based Whiteleys Retreat, which provides short breaks for children, young people and their families with cancer and life altering illnesses. The other 50% will go to caring for the Scottish Maritime Museum’s national heritage collection.

A limited number of glass pumpkins are still on sale in the Museum’s Gift Shops in the Linthouse on Harbour Road and in the Boatshop, besides Puffers Café, on Irvine Harbourside.

Nicola Scott, Event and Exhibitions Officer at the Scottish Maritime Museum, says:

It was great to see so many people of all ages having such a wonderful time at our Halloween event. Helping raise money for the wonderful work Whiteleys Retreat does made the day extra special. Thank you to Robert McLeod too for creating these unique ornaments and supporting the Museum and Whiteleys Retreat.”

Maxine Allan, CEO of Whiteleys Retreat adds:

We would like to say a massive thank you to the team at the Scottish Maritime Museum and to everyone who took part on the day. We hope you all had a fun ‘spook-tacular’ time! These funds will go a long way to supporting the retreat and helping us provide respite breaks for children, young people and their families with cancer or life altering illness in Ayrshire, and beyond.”