PATRICK O'FLYNN and family enjoy a spine-chilling weekend discovering York's eeriest secrets

CHILDREN  love to be scared. They enjoy watching creepy films and read the most ghoulish books they can find. Well, mine do at least.

So when I told my daughter Phoebe, 12, and 10-year-old Raphael we were going to spend the weekend in the most haunted city in Britain, they were ecstatic.

Our base for this ghoulish weekend was the far-from-scary Dovecote Barns in the village of Kelfield, eight miles south of the city. Here three barns have been converted and refurbished to deliver luxurious, eco-friendly accommodation.

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We stayed in the Hay Barn, which sleeps six in three ground-floor double bedrooms, all en suite.

A wooden staircase led up to an open-plan living area with a spacious kitchen at one end, large dining area in the middle and sofas, flatscreen TV and woodburning stove at the other. My wife Carole Ann and I can't praise this five-star self-catering property highly enough. A well-stocked games cupboard entertained us one evening, while we were left a welcome food pack that included a freshly baked, still warm loaf of bread as well as bacon, eggs, butter and milk.

After a few hours unwinding following our drive from London we were ready to explore. We chose the best-known and most theatrical ghost tour, The Ghost Hunt of York, convening in The Shambles, the city's famous cobbled, medieval street, at 7.30pm each evening.

Guide Andy Dextrous, decked out in a black Victorian frock coat with a top hot and Gladstone bag, entertains his large audiences with aplomb. On the night we went he sounded his "death bell" as he led some 200 people around the city's ancient streets. For one-and-a-half hours he captivated us with creepy tales and one-liners delivered with the gusto of a pantomime villain.

Our children had eyes as big as saucers as they heard the stories, many of which featured infants who had come to foul ends and returned to haunt the places where they had met their doom.

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One particularly grisly story was about a little girl who had developed the first signs of plague and was locked in her bedroom by her parents and abandoned to a slow and lingering death. She was seen, it is said, scratching weakly at a tiny window of a medieval house under which we stood as a church bell tolled the hour. Several times a year her ghost is still seen at the window.

Such stories were enough to give anyone a nightmare although I was sound asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, the Hay Barn being equipped with those magical mattresses that are usually only found in five-star hotels.

The next day we set off early, determined to cram in as much sightseeing as we could. As York's internationally acclaimed Jorvik Viking Centre was still preparing to reopen after a £1million refit (it's up and running now), our first port of call was the Castle Museum.

I am not particularly keen on museums so had relatively low expectations. But this was a revelation, with the accent on social history rather than ancient artefacts in glass cases.
 Every era was recreated splendidly, including living rooms and kitchens from every decade of post-war Britain.
The highlight for our spooky twosome, however, was the prison section in catacombs.
Again, great imagination was shown by projecting characters from olden days on to the white cell walls. Each had a grisly tale to tell.
Our children decided it was now time to turn up the scare factor even higher and visit the nearby York Dungeons.
Having been to the sister attraction, The London Dungeons, my daughter and I can vouch that the York branch does not pale by comparison. Actors brought the gruesome events in York's history to life, while atmospheric special effects added to the experience.

At this point I should say that York is also a lovely shopping city, with many upmarket shops and lots of quirky jewellers and boutiques in and around The Shambles.

I am afraid we ran out of time, though. Not only was there no time for the Minster - the largest gothic cathedral in Europe - but neither did we get to visit the National Rail Museum or Regimental Museum (both also highly rated).

We would have needed at least two more days to do the place full justice but it got a big gothic thumbs up from our dastardly duo.

THE KNOWLEDGE:
Dovecote Barns (01757 249332/ www.dovecotebarnsyork.co.uk) offers three nights self-catering at the Hay Barn from £358 (two sharing).

Visit York: 01904 550099/ www.visityork.org