It's the most wonderful time of the year. Night times are properly dark again, everyone's a bit gloomy that summer is over, and pumpkin spice is back on the shelves. Scotland is pretty good at giving Halloween the respect it deserves, as befits our grisly history. As such, you can get in about the ghosts and ghouls all over the country at this time of year.

The Pearce Institute Ghost Hunt, led by the Scottish Ghost Nights' crew of paranormal investigators is an opportunity to explore the apparently haunted listed building. The night consists of ghost hunt workshops, a tour, a medium and vigils (if you're brave enough). If you don't like being above ground, the truly scary-sounding Hell's Gate Horror Tour is an interactive overnight terror-themed event based in the not-at-all-terrifying nuclear bunker 100 feet below good old terra firma. Another underground option is right there in the title of Ghostly Underground, a daytime (thankfully) tour of Edinburgh's haunted vaults with a guide who'll try their best to scare you shirtless with tales of the city's mischief-makers and murderers from days of yore.

Back to overnight fun – Halloween Special Sleepover is a sleepover with very little sleep and ample opportunity to wander the halls of the former sanatorium to see if any patients' spirits got left behind. Glasgow Horror Festival is a less intense, but still scary all-day horror festival featuring live music, film screenings, Q&As and FX demos – something for horror fans of all stripes.