Spooky Square

Spooky Square is running at W5 in Belfast from Saturday 17 October to Sunday 1 November, with the centre on Level 4. It's the main part of W5's Halloween festival this year, and it's built around a character called Boo Ghost, who's misplaced several important festival items and needs visitors to help find them.

You start by walking through a Halloween House full of flickering lights, eerie paintings, cobwebs and ghostly surprises. Once you're through, you search Spooky Square to solve a series of puzzles: unlocking the locked Festival Hall, helping a witch brew her potion, crafting a Halloween mask, finding the Skeleton Band's missing music sheet and spotting the costume-stealing bats. It's a hands-on trail for all ages, so it works as well with toddlers as it does with older kids.

Spooky Square sits alongside a wider Halloween programme across the venue. On Level 5 there's the Pumpkins and Potions live science show, and on Level 2 the Climbit climbing structure gets a haunted makeover. There's also the chance to dress up at Over the Hills, the Hocus Pocus Cafe and a Spooky Science Bar, all running alongside W5's usual 250-plus hands-on exhibits across eight zones. If you're taking the kids, you can easily make a full day of it.

It runs daily from 10am to 6pm, and it's free with general admission to W5. Pre-booking is essential, and last admission is two hours before closing, so if you're planning a late visit, keep that in mind.