Visitors to an Irvine museum have helped raise more than £800 to help Ayrshire’s Whiteleys Retreat and its maritime heritage fund.

More than 350 adults and children enjoyed the Scottish Maritime Museum’s popular annual Hallowe’en event at its Harbourside base on Saturday, October 30 – with the visitors helping to raise £812 for charity in total.

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 Hallowe’en 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 per cent of the proceeds going to charity.

Fifty per cent of the money raised on the day, £406, will now go to the Ayrshire-based Whiteleys Retreat down in Carrick, which provides short breaks for children, young people and their families with cancer and life altering illnesses.

The other 50 per cent 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 Boat Shop, besides Puffers Café, on Irvine Harbourside.

Nicola Scott, Event and Exhibitions Officer at the Scottish Maritime Museum, said: “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 said: “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.”