Halloween Events Sevenoaks 2026: 14 On Until 1 November

Halloween events in Sevenoaks follow a pattern. The big estates run a daytime trail that is free once you have paid to get in, and one or two places do something later in the day. Within half an hour of the town you have Hever, Penshurst, Knole, Chartwell, Emmetts, Ightham Mote and Lullingstone, and most of them put something on for the October week.

Fourteen events are confirmed and all of them are running now. Most finish on Sunday 1 November. Lullingstone Castle’s Halloween Magic is a single day, Saturday 31 October.

We rechecked every date and price against the venue’s own website on 27 October 2026. Nothing had moved. Emmetts Garden has added one event since our last check: a free app adventure for 7 to 12 year olds.

What is confirmed for Halloween 2026

The pattern is worth understanding before you spend anything. At the estates the Halloween programme is bundled into the standard ticket rather than sold separately. The real decision is whether the day out is worth the admission price, not whether the trail is worth a few pounds. Emmetts is the exception: its trail and fairground are charged on top.

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Chartwell: a ghost hunt for under 8s, to 1 November

Chartwell near Westerham, about fifteen minutes from Sevenoaks, has the earliest start. Its October Half Term Halloween Trail, We’re Going on a Ghost Hunt, runs from 3 October to 1 November 2026 (National Trust). The Trust describes it as designed for under 8s.

What the trail involves, from the event page:

• a route through the garden and into the woodland
• eight stops with games and challenges
• ghosts to find along the way
• a sticker reward at the shop when you finish

It is free with normal admission and needs no booking. For the rest of its run it is open 10am to 3pm daily. The Trust warns of slopes, steps and possibly muddy paths. Our Chartwell visiting guide has the admission prices, the £6 car park and the house ticket rules.

What it means for you: the 3pm finish is earlier than most, so go in the morning. If you are a National Trust member it costs nothing beyond parking.

Emmetts Garden: trail, fairground, workshops and an app

Emmetts Garden at Ide Hill, about fifteen minutes from Sevenoaks, has the fullest programme of any National Trust site nearby. Its Autumn Festival runs 9 October to 1 November 2026 (National Trust). Unlike Chartwell, the family parts are charged on top of admission.

• Outdoor family activity trail, 9 October to 1 November. Fun-Gus saves the forest: children complete outdoor challenges to find a code that saves the wood’s underground network. £3 per trail booklet from Visitor Reception, no booking. 10am to 3:30pm for the rest of half term (National Trust).
• Children’s fairground, 23 October to 1 November. A carousel, swing boats and a teacup ride on the meadow, run by local operator Lee Sherwood. Rides suit ages 2 to 8, open from 10am with the last ride at 3:30pm, and a maximum of 10 children per ride. £10 per wristband per day, or £12 combined with the trail booklet, bought on the day from the Visitor Centre. Accompanying adults do not need a wristband (National Trust).
• Halloween spiderweb weaving, 29 October to 1 November. A drop-in session under a marquee on the meadow, 10:30am to 12:15pm and 1pm to 3pm. Free with admission, ages 2 and up (National Trust).
• Halloween spooky woodcraft, 29 October to 1 November. Whittle a wooden mushroom keyring in a 45-minute session. £8 per child, ages 8 and up, eight places per session, booking essential on 0344 249 1895. Sessions start at 10:30am, 11:30am, 1pm and 2pm (National Trust).
• Stranger Folk digital adventure, daily to 1 November. New since our last check. A folklore game played on one phone through the free Stranger Folk app: goblins and boggarts have slipped through a rift and you follow the Old Crone to heal it. It is designed for ages 7 to 12, takes about 20 minutes, and runs 10am to 4pm. No booking and free with admission; collect the Magic Word at Visitor Reception. Download the app before you go, because Wi-Fi only covers parts of the site (National Trust).

What it means for you: the meadow may be muddy, and the Trust says so. Wellies for the fairground.

Knole: the Gruffalo, not ghosts

Knole has no Halloween event listed for 2026. What it has instead is The Gruffalo Art Adventure, 29 August to 1 November 2026, 10am to 5pm: twelve giant painted sculptures across the parkland and into the Orangery, made with Wild in Art and Magic Light Pictures (National Trust). The Trust says an Outdoor and Tower ticket is the minimum admission and that booking is essential. Our Gruffalo trail at Knole Park guide has what a family pays, the names of all twelve sculptures and the buggy, dog and access rules.

The deer park itself is free to walk into on foot whatever happens. Our Knole Park guide has the parking cost and the walking routes.

Hever Castle: the biggest programme, to 1 November

Hever, about twenty minutes from Sevenoaks near Edenbridge, has confirmed Halloween Half Term Fun for 17 October to 1 November 2026, included with admission (Hever Castle). That is sixteen days covering both weekends either side of Kent’s half term.

The 2026 theme is science. Included with admission:

• the Mad Scientist’s Halloween Trail through the grounds, daily, closing at 4pm; solve the hidden-letter puzzle and collect a sweet bag from the Information Hut
• a Mad Scientist goggles craft activity, 11am to 4pm
• Dr Frankenstein’s Science Adventure Show, indoors at the Think Tank, at 11:30, 12:30, 2pm and 3pm

Face painting costs £6 per child, noon to 4pm with the last face at 3:45pm. This week it runs on 29, 30 and 31 October only, not Tuesday or Wednesday. It is first come, first served: book a slot with the face painter and pay in the Courtyard Shop (Hever Castle).

Running underneath it is Autumn Colour, from 28 September to 1 November, also included with admission (Hever Castle).

Admission for 2 September to 19 November 2026, booked online (Hever Castle):

• Castle and Gardens: adult £25.50, child (5 to 17) £14.05, family £66.60
• Gardens only: adult £19.95, child £12.50, family £54.65
• Under 5s: free
• On the gate, an adult Castle and Gardens ticket is £28.40

What it means for you: book online. If the children only care about the trail, the maze and the playgrounds, the Gardens Only ticket saves £5.55 per adult and still includes the Halloween activities. Our Hever Castle day out guide covers the rest.

Leeds Castle: Horrible Histories, to 1 November

Leeds Castle runs Horrible Histories Halloween, subtitled Silly Ghosts and Ghastly History, from Saturday 17 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, included with the admission ticket (Leeds Castle).

It is a fact-finding trail round the grounds with six challenges and a finale, and the history is real rather than generic spooky dressing:

• Eleanor of Castile: A Royal Ghost. Which everyday objects medieval people trusted to stop a ghost taking their soul, among them candles, salt, iron, a broom and silver.
• Joan of Navarre: Witch or Not? Joan was accused of witchcraft by her own stepson and imprisoned at Leeds Castle itself. Children spin a Wheel of Ghostly Fate for their own verdict.
• Catherine of Aragon: The Forgotten Queen. Henry VIII held a joust when Catherine died and was knocked off his horse doing it. Take a shield and try to out-shoot him.
• Witches Zone: Potion Panic, a potion-making class, and Get That Ghost, a relay race.
• Spooktacular Stories, where children write their own.
• Ghostly Gala, the finale at the Maze, with performers, music and dancing. Fancy dress is expected here and costume competitions run twice a day.

Finish all six and the child is an official Ghost Getter. The castle describes the tone as intriguing rather than frightening, which matches the daytime trails at Hever and Penshurst rather than anything for teenagers.

One catch worth knowing before you go: the trail itself is included, but the trail booklet is charged separately, at what Leeds Castle calls a small additional cost with a gold coin prize inside each one. It does not publish that price, so budget for it and ask at the gate. The Birds of Prey Centre displays and the autumn garden walks are included as normal.

Go Ape at Leeds Castle adds a Halloween Potion Hunt from 24 October to 1 November. It is an optional add-on to its Treetop Adventure courses and booked through Go Ape, not the castle (Leeds Castle).

Admission for 2026, booked online (Leeds Castle):

• Explorer: adult £34.50, child aged 3 to 15 £24.50, under 3s free
• One adult and up to three children: £87
• Two adults and up to three children: £115
• On the gate those become £38.50, £28, £97 and £128.50
• An adult with a disability and a free carer is £30 online, a child and carer £22

The castle is open 10.30am to 5pm and the grounds 10am to 6pm, with last entry at 3pm.

What it means for you: it is the furthest of the confirmed events, about forty minutes on the M26 and M20, and the most expensive per head. Read the family price carefully, because £87 buys one adult and three children, not two adults and two, which is £115. The ticket converts to a year’s free entry, so the maths only works if you will go back, and the Fireworks Spectacular on 7 and 8 November is one reason people do. Its Saturday night was marked sold out on 27 October. Put a costume in the car: the Gala runs its competitions twice daily and a child without one will notice.

Lullingstone Castle: one day, 31 October

The most local of the confirmed events and the most different in character. Lullingstone Castle and the World Garden at Eynsford, about fifteen minutes north of Sevenoaks, runs Halloween Magic on 31 October 2026 from 11am to 6pm, closing its twenty-first season (Lullingstone Castle).

On the day:

• pumpkin carving and a pumpkin trail
• garden tours with Tom Hart Dyke at 1pm and a dusk tour at 5pm
• Zoolab in the church, 3pm to 4pm, with live snails, insects, spiders and corn snakes
• the Manor House open 11am to 4pm, last entry 3:30pm
• the ukulele band Uke Cannot Be Serious at 4pm, for 45 minutes

Admission is £13.50 for an adult with under 16s free. Pumpkin carving asks a £5 donation, cash only. No pre-booking, and fancy dress is welcome (Lullingstone Castle).

What it means for you: for a family with two or three children this is comfortably the cheapest, because children go free. The dusk tour is what makes it feel like Halloween rather than a daytime trail.

Penshurst Place: a trail, crafts and storytelling from 24 October

Penshurst Place, about twenty-five minutes south of Sevenoaks, has the third fullest programme in reach of the town after Hever and Emmetts (Penshurst Place).

• Beware the Bad Apple! Halloween Trail, 24 October to 1 November, daily, 10am to 5pm. Fergus Fang and Frightful Fred are identical twins with opposite tempers. Fred swaps his brother’s shampoo for green hair dye, Fergus answers with a poison apple potion, and children search the grounds for the ingredients and work out the side effect of each one.
• Halloween crafts, 24 October to 1 November, 11am to 3.30pm in The Old Coach House. Drop-in making, taken home to decorate before the day itself.
• Halloween storytelling, 26 to 31 October, in the Garden Room, with performances at 11.15am, noon, 12.45pm, 2pm and 2.45pm. Penshurst calls it panto-style with optional audience participation, and says it is a deliberately “not too scary” take on Halloween.

None of the three carries a ticket price or a booking link. Penshurst describes its year as “a bumper collection of activities included in the cost of your admission” (Penshurst Place).

Admission in 2026 is £17 for an adult and £9.50 for a child aged 5 to 15, or £48 for two adults and two children, covering the house, gardens and grounds. Gardens and grounds only is £15, £9 and £45. Two under 5s go free per paying adult (Penshurst Place). Everything is open daily until Sunday 1 November: gardens and grounds 10am to 5pm, the house and the toy museum 11.30am to 4pm with last entry at 3.30pm (Penshurst Place).

What it means for you: this is the last week of the season. The house, gardens, playground and Toy Museum close for winter after Sunday 1 November. Our Penshurst Place day out guide has what stays open over winter.

Riverhill and Ightham Mote

Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, two miles from the town centre, closes its season with a Pumpkin Festival from Saturday 17 October to Sunday 1 November, 10am to 4pm. There is a pumpkin hunt round the gardens and a grotto for carving. No pre-booking and no charge on top of normal admission (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens). Riverhill is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, which catches people out in half term. Our Riverhill guide has the prices.

Ightham Mote has gone for Pokémon rather than ghosts. The Pikachu Art Adventure runs from Thursday 1 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, part of the Pokémon Trading Card Game’s 30th anniversary: 30 Pikachu cards, each by a different illustrator, with facts about the character along the way and a chance for children to design their own card. There is no booking and nothing to pay on top of normal admission (National Trust). This week it is listed 10am to 5pm daily.

There is no Halloween event as such. The Trust’s events list for the house on 27 October had nothing ghostly (National Trust), though it has run a ghostly garden trail in past years (KentOnline). Admission to 1 November is £19 an adult, £9.50 a child and £47.50 for two adults and up to three children, plus £4 to park; members go free.

What it means for you: go before Sunday 1 November. From the next day until 20 November only the garden and estate are open, and the trail has ended. Our Ightham Mote visiting guide has the parking, dog and bus details.

Planning the rest of the week

Whose half term is it? The answer depends on the school. Kent County Council’s half term is Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026 (Kent County Council). Most Sevenoaks schools are academies, grammars or independents that set their own dates, and nine of the ten we checked broke up on Friday 16 October. For most children in the town the holiday is two weeks, ending on Friday 30 October. Our October half term guide has the school-by-school dates.

How the days stack up:

• Tuesday 27 to Thursday 29 October: the best days left to beat the crowds, since midweek is normally quieter than the weekend at the big houses.
• Thursday 29 October: the Emmetts woodcraft and spiderweb sessions start, and Hever’s face painting returns.
• Saturday 31 October: Halloween itself and the busiest day of the period. It is the only day for Lullingstone.
• Sunday 1 November: the last day for almost everything on this page. Ightham Mote, Penshurst and Riverhill all end their season or their trails that day.

The fireworks displays pick up the following weekend. The year-round list of things to do in Sevenoaks covers what is open after 1 November.

Frequently asked questions

What Halloween events are confirmed near Sevenoaks for 2026? Fourteen, rechecked on 27 October, and all of them are running this week. Lullingstone’s Halloween Magic is on Saturday 31 October only and Penshurst’s storytelling ends that day. Everything else runs to Sunday 1 November: trails at Chartwell, Emmetts, Hever, Leeds Castle and Penshurst, the Emmetts fairground and Stranger Folk app game, Riverhill’s Pumpkin Festival, Penshurst’s crafts, Ightham Mote’s Pikachu trail, the Gruffalo at Knole and Hever’s Autumn Colour.

Is there anything at Knole for Halloween? No Halloween event is listed for 2026. Knole’s autumn draw is the Gruffalo Art Adventure, twelve giant sculptures across the park until 1 November, with an Outdoor and Tower ticket (National Trust). The deer park is free to walk into on foot.

Which Halloween event near Sevenoaks is best value for a family? Lullingstone Castle, where under 16s go free and adults pay £13.50, so two adults and three children cost £27 plus a £5 cash donation for carving (Lullingstone Castle). For National Trust members, Chartwell’s trail costs nothing beyond parking. Of the paid houses, Penshurst is the cheapest at £45 for a family of four, gardens and grounds only (Penshurst Place); Hever is £54.65 for the equivalent online, but you get sixteen possible days (Hever Castle).

Do I need to book Halloween events in advance? Book admission online for Hever and Leeds Castle, which charge more at the gate. Knole says booking is essential for the Gruffalo trail. Chartwell’s trail, Ightham Mote’s Pikachu trail, the Emmetts trail, fairground and Stranger Folk game, all three at Penshurst, Lullingstone and Riverhill are walk-up. Only the Emmetts woodcraft workshop needs a phone booking, and with eight places a session it is the one to ring about first.

Is there anything at Ightham Mote for Halloween? Not a Halloween event. Its half term draw is the Pikachu Art Adventure, 30 illustrated Pikachu cards to find and a card to design, from 1 October to 1 November, free with normal admission and no booking (National Trust). The Trust’s events list on 27 October had nothing ghostly for the house.

Are these events too scary for young children? No. Chartwell’s trail is written for under 8s, the Emmetts fairground suits ages 2 to 8, Hever’s is science-themed, Penshurst calls its storytelling “not too scary”, Leeds Castle calls its Horrible Histories trail intriguing rather than frightening, and Lullingstone’s is built around pumpkin carving and live animals. For something genuinely frightening for teenagers, look for separately ticketed evening events rather than the daytime trails.

Sources

• Chartwell We’re Going on a Ghost Hunt trail: National Trust
• Emmetts Garden Autumn Festival trail, fairground, spiderweb weaving, Stranger Folk and woodcraft
• Knole Gruffalo Art Adventure: National Trust
• Hever Castle Halloween Half Term Fun, Autumn Colour and prices
• Leeds Castle Horrible Histories Halloween 2026 dates, trail stations, booklet charge and Go Ape add-ons: Leeds Castle; admission prices, carer rates and opening times: Leeds Castle
• Ightham Mote Pikachu Art Adventure: National Trust; events list checked 27 October 2026: National Trust
• Lullingstone Castle Halloween Magic 2026: Lullingstone Castle
• Riverhill Pumpkin Festival 2026: Riverhill Himalayan Gardens
• Penshurst Place October 2026 calendar, 2026 admission prices and opening times
• National Trust Kent Halloween trails in past years: KentOnline
• Kent October half term 2026 dates: Kent County Council

Every date and price was rechecked against the venue’s own website on 27 October 2026. Leeds Castle does not publish the price of its trail booklet, so confirm with the venue before you travel.